Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In a prying manner; with close inspection or impertinent curiosity.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In a prying manner.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb In a
prying manner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in a curious and prying manner
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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She said pryingly, “Is that why Master Iah was at your house?”
The Pilgrimage 2009
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He looked down pryingly into her arms, and at the first glance thought that it was his umbrella.
The Three Clerks 2004
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As soon therefore as we had spread open the mantle, the woman that stood muffled by the country-man, having pryingly taken notice of some tokens about it, forceably laid both hands on't, and setting up her throat, cryed out, "Thieves, thieves!"
The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter 20-66 Petronius Arbiter
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This was something which Carlo and Smut the black cat thought it their duty to look into, to judge from the way they pryingly inspected the monster heap of greenery in the wide passage, where the boy and girl worked, making Inna laugh and laugh again, till her uncle peeped out of his study door to inquire what was the matter.
The Heiress of Wyvern Court Emilie Searchfield
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Sometimes I could see him sitting on an impending bough, with his tail over his back, looking down pryingly upon me.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 Various
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Instead, he began to prowl about my room, pryingly, nosingly, touching things here and there.
Widdershins Oliver [pseud.] Onions 1917
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She raises her double gold eyeglasses, and, contracting her forehead, stares pryingly about her; and so fashionable is she, and her modernity is so picturesque, that for a moment you think of the entrance of a duchess in the first act of a piece by Augier played on the stage of the Français.
A Mere Accident 1892
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One evening, after the sun went down, rays of blue and rose came from it in a half-wheel shape, so ineffably delicate that if we looked too pryingly they were not there, but if we glanced unawares there they were.
Memories of Hawthorne Rose Hawthorne Lathrop 1888
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“Are these yours, really and really?” she asked, looking pryingly
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He looked down pryingly into her arms, and at the first glance thought that it was his umbrella.
The Three Clerks Anthony Trollope 1848
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