Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a sage manner; wisely; with just discernment and prudence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a sage manner; wisely.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In the manner of a sage, with wisdom, wisely.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a wise manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sage +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • And for the record, I appreciate you using the term "sagely" in reference to me even if it was in jest!

    Was Washington Irving gay? Ann Althouse 2007

  • Remember that the American carmaker responded to the threat of smaller, cheaper, better, more economical foreign cars in the 1970s by taking a long, hard look at its fleet of behemoths, nodding sagely, and then adding spiffier "landau roofs."

    Gene and the Machine: The shocking truth about the electric Volt Gene Weingarten 2011

  • Here I applied the sagely old nurse smile, and I looked right back into those watery green eyes.

    Empty is the House of Death Athena G. Csuti 2011

  • The old man nodded sagely when he heard the good word at Mass a week ago.

    meg's christmas story prompt James Claffey 2011

  • "I can always buy a ticket," she proffered, sagely.

    Trailer trash 2011

  • "For whether they be large or small, a dozen eggs is a dozen eggs," he observed sagely to himself; and a dozen small ones he found to weigh but a pound and a quarter.

    THE ONE THOUSAND DOZEN 2010

  • Chris, as for President Obama lying, the actions he promised are indeed, as you sagely suggest, still in progress and therefore don't qualify as lies.

    McCain campaign adviser pushes back on Palin book 2009

  • [I] n mooring this familiar character to the unique history of early-20th-century Hawaii, Brennert portrays the Aloha State's history as complicated and dynamic -- not simply a melting pot, but a Hawaiian-style "mixed plate" in which, as Jin sagely notes, "many different tastes share the plate, but none of them loses its individual flavor, and together they make up a uniquely 'local' cuisine."

    Honolulu: Summary and book reviews of Honolulu by Alan Brennert. 2009

  • Joe Sixpack nods sagely again … theAmericanist says:

    Matthew Yglesias » Sleep Deprivation 2010

  • A nation nods sagely; it's bamboozled us for years, too.

    Who Do You Think You Are? – Grace Dent's TV OD 2011

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