Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb And nothing else or more; only.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Absolutely; wholly; completely; utterly.
- Simply; solely; only.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb Purely; unmixedly; absolutely.
- adverb Not otherwise than; simply; barely; only.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb and nothing more
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The husband and father fell dead in the street before our eyes, -- and those who picked him up said he was drunk, but it turned out that he was merely starved, -- _merely_!
Temporal Power Marie Corelli 1889
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Externals, things wholly extraneous of the man, steal upon the hearts and judgments of almost, if not altogether, all mankind; nor do I know more than one instance of a man who fully regards all the world as a stage and all the men and women merely players, and who (the dancing-school bow excepted) only values these players, the _dramatis personæ_ who build cities and who rear hedges, who govern provinces or superintend flocks, _merely as they act their parts_.
The Letters of Robert Burns Robert Burns 1777
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My suspicion is that the label merely wanted an album that large numbers of people might like, and they did not think such a desire precluded the band from making an album that was valid.
Chuck Klosterman on Rock Chuck Klosterman 2010
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My suspicion is that the label merely wanted an album that large numbers of people might like, and they did not think such a desire precluded the band from making an album that was valid.
Oh, the Guilt Chuck Klosterman 2009
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My suspicion is that the label merely wanted an album that large numbers of people might like, and they did not think such a desire precluded the band from making an album that was valid.
Eating the Dinosaur Chuck Klosterman 2009
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My suspicion is that the label merely wanted an album that large numbers of people might like, and they did not think such a desire precluded the band from making an album that was valid.
Oh, the Guilt Chuck Klosterman 2009
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After viewing, I concluded that the title merely indicated "cracks" in the sanity of some of the film's characters -- but a crack is a slang term in the original South African where the novel was set vernacular.
Melody Breyer-Grell: Cracks is Girls Gone Wild ala The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (in a Good Way) Melody Breyer-Grell 2011
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After viewing, I concluded that the title merely indicated "cracks" in the sanity of some of the film's characters -- but a crack is a slang term in the original South African where the novel was set vernacular.
Melody Breyer-Grell: Cracks is Girls Gone Wild ala The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (in a Good Way) Melody Breyer-Grell 2011
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It also suggests that the question may be a confusing one -- perhaps respondents think that the question of who to trust to "handle" Iraq merely translates as, "presuming we're staying, who do you trust to continue the fight best?"
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The Next Right's Patrick Ruffini warns the GOP that if it concludes that President-Elect Barack Obama earned the title merely by pushing the right levers on the Internet, "they will draw the wrong lessons from this year;" Where does Chris Hughes fit into an Obama administration?, tweets NYU's Jay Rosen.
hernesheir commented on the word merely
American Heritage Dictionary channels Monte Python in its definition of merely: "And nothing else or more; only: merely a flesh wound." - One recalls the supremely confident Black Knight guarding the footbridge in Holy Grail, who utters, as he is dismembered during swordplay, "'Tis but a scratch"; "I've had worse,", and, "It's just a flesh wound!".
March 22, 2011