bigly
Syllables: big·ly/ˈbɪɡ.li/
bigly adverb: in a big way, greatly; to a great extent, on a large scale.
Adverb
bigly (comparative more bigly, superlative most bigly)
- In a big way, greatly; to a great extent, on a large scale.
- He looked at Mrs. Harling, who loomed bigly in the dull light.1915, Cosmo Hamilton, The Miracle of Love, page 256
- Big Bessie's feet hurt like nobody's business, / but she stands—bigly—under the unruly scrutiny, stands in the wild weed.1968, Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Second Sermon on the Warpland”, in In the Mecca
- Strongly, with great force.
- Thesse men did much in order to publicke good, befor they spake biglie; bot done nothing since, saue that they haue drawin away considerable forces, raissed at wast charges for the publicke defence.1651, James Balfour, “[The Annales of Scotland.] Some Shorte Memories and Passages of Staite, from the 13 day of Marche, 1651, to the first of Januarij, 1653”, in [James Haig], editor, The Historical...
- It was well obſerved by the late pious Dr Doddridge, that "The eternal ſalvation of one ſoul is of far greater importance, and bigly pregnant with far greater events, than the temporal ſalvation, wealth, well-being, or happiness of a whole kingdom, though it were for the ſpace of ten thouſand, or...1790, [James Graham], “The Infallible Guide to Eternal Blessedness; or, the Awful Worth, and Very High Dignity of the Soul, Arising from Its Immortality; …”, in The Guardian of Health, Long-Life, and...
- In a blustering or boastful manner; haughtily, pompously.
- Would'ſt thou not rather chooſe a ſmall renown, / To be the mayor of ſome poor paltry town, / Bigly to look, and barbarouſly to ſpeak; / To pound falſe weights, and ſcanty meaſures break?1795, Juvenal, “The Works of Juvenal. Translated by John Dryden, Esq. and Others. Satire X.”, in John Dryden, transl., edited by Robert Anderson, The Works of the British Poets. With Prefaces...
- In any event, he adopted the whole of [William] Lauder's malignity; and let his partisans first clear him of this offense before they talk bigly of his innocence, and bluster in his cause.1822, Charles Symmons, “Appendix”, in The Life of John Milton, 3rd edition, London: Printed for G. and W. B. Whittaker, Ave Maria Lane, →OCLC, page 483
Adjective (1)
bigly (comparative more bigly, superlative most bigly)
- Big league.
- It had been the very bestest of bigly weekends. Two rounds of golf at his very own course in Turnberry.2025 July 28, John Crace, “Sidekick Starmer can’t get a word in as The Donald dominates world’s most one-sided double act”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Adjective (2)
bigly (comparative more bigly, superlative most bigly)
- Habitable, liveable; hence delightful, pleasant, pleasing.
- "And steek it weel, thy biglie bower, / And by the rood thee sain; / And tell thy bedes in haly guise, / Till this ae night is gane!"1806, Robert Jamieson, “Donul and Evir”, in Robert Jamieson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient...
- When I was in my bigly bower, / I wore but what I would; / This night I'm lighter 'mang Willie's horse feet, / I fear I'll die for cold.1828, Peter Buchan, “Burd Helen”, in Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, hitherto Unpublished. With Explanatory Notes, by Peter Buchan, Corresponding Member of the Society of...
Examples of bigly in a sentence
- I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong2006 October 23, Rush Limbaugh, rushlimbaugh.com:
- In the light and air the shadows of the clouds move bigly over the baby's arms.2008, Joy Katz, “On Sharon Olds: Big Baby”, in Arielle Greenberg, Rachel Zucker, editors, Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and...
- You complained that I was writing too bigly for airletters and sort of cheating you of information.2011, Norman Rush, Mortals, page 10:
- That is, start to renegotiate, gain some minor concessions then declare victory bigly.2017 July 18, Tim Worstall, “Trump's Nafta Renegotiation - Insist On Minor Changes, Declare Victory Bigly”, in Forbes:
Forms of bigly
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more bigly |
| superlative | most bigly |
| alternative form (obsolete) | biglie |
| alternative form (obsolete) | bygly |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more bigly |
| superlative | most bigly |
Origin of bigly
From Middle English bygly, byggly, biggely. By surface analysis, big (“of great size, large (adjective); to a large extent, on a large scale; hard (adverb)”) + -ly.
From Middle English bygly, biglie, byggly (“comfortable, stately, perfect”), borrowed from Old Norse byggiligr, byggviligr (“habitable”); equivalent to big (“to build, construct, live in, reside, dwell”) + -ly. Cognate with Icelandic byggilegur (“inhabitable, liveable”).
Words that rhyme with bigly
Questions about bigly
- What does bigly mean?
- Bigly means in a big way, greatly; to a great extent, on a large scale.
- How do you use bigly in a sentence?
- I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong
- What part of speech is bigly?
- Bigly can be an adverb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce bigly?
- Bigly is pronounced /ˈbɪɡ.li/ (UK).
Words near bigly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bigly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “bigly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bigly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.