Anglais modifier

Étymologie modifier

Dérivé de swift, avec le suffixe -ly.

Adverbe modifier

swiftly \swɪft.li\

  1. Rapidement, vite.
    • In the meantime Deerslayer had been swiftly approaching the land, and his own canoe reached the point just as his enemy disappeared. — (James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer, chapitre 7. Lea & Blanchard, 1841.)
    • He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams. — (Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, chapitre « Search for Mr. Hyde ». Longmans, Green, and Co., 1886.)
    • The landscape was dull and ugly, the engine buzzed hypnotically, the hour passed swiftly. — (Jack Vance, The Man in the Cage, page 74. Random House, 1960 (réédition digitale, 2012).)
    • But in a sign of continued disagreement among the parties, while Swinson raised the idea of a backbench grandee such as Ken Clarke, Harriet Harman or Margaret Beckett leading a temporary government, Labour swiftly dismissed the idea. — (Peter Walker, « Opposition parties disagree over potential interim PM ». Theguardian.com, 30 septembre 2019.)

Prononciation modifier