as in easily
without difficulty
you're not going to get off lightly if they catch you!
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of lightly
The first violins unfurl a lilting, lightly bopping tune in D minor.
—
Alex Ross, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
Almond milk received an honorable mention for its nutrient profile, lightly nutty taste, and versatility in recipes.
—Laura Schober, Health, 8 Sep. 2025
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
—Essence, 8 Sep. 2025
Meanwhile, lightly grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.
—Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for lightly
Alex Ross, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
Almond milk received an honorable mention for its nutrient profile, lightly nutty taste, and versatility in recipes.
—Laura Schober, Health, 8 Sep. 2025
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
—Essence, 8 Sep. 2025
Meanwhile, lightly grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.
—Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for lightly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lightly
Adverb
-
The chain of landforms to the west of Kauai is so small that it was not easily spotted in the satellite images taken as Kiko roared across the Pacific toward Hawaii as a Category 4 hurricane.—
Dinah Voyles Pulver,
USA Today,
11 Sep. 2025
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The real premium comes from organizational capability — leadership, culture, and systems that competitors can’t easily copy.—
Vibhas Ratanjee,
Forbes.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
But the conversation didn’t end smoothly, leaving tension in the air.—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
10 Sep. 2025
-
This convenience explains why, if wallets can't integrate RWAs smoothly, tokenization will remain a niche pursuit.—
Jamie Elkaleh,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
What struck me the most was how effortlessly the hotel manages to be both elevated and comfortable.—
Susmita Baral,
Travel + Leisure,
7 Sep. 2025
-
Her son, maybe six or seven years old, could effortlessly hitch himself up to the top of the park’s lampposts.—
Rivka Galchen,
New Yorker,
6 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
Two side handles make removing it from the oven easy, and it can even be carried from the stove to the table for seamless serving.—
Shea Simmons,
Southern Living,
4 Sep. 2025
-
And that’s getting off easy, considering 10 wins is likely what AFC teams will need to qualify for the postseason.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
4 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
Instead of freely taking up legal work in Thailand, Sara was smuggled at gunpoint into a scammers’ compound in Myanmar.—
Christine Ro,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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Open-source models amplify this risk – they can be freely downloaded, altered, and run offline, enabling rapid innovation but also removing layers of oversight.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
7 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
This announcement represents a major milestone in the software and hardware needed to efficiently process inference queries, disaggregating inference processing into two workloads with a GPU tailored for each in the case of long-context windows greater than one million tokens.—
Karl Freund,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
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The electric system is underperforming because utilities and energy companies don’t get rewarded for making the existing system operate more efficiently or adopting new technologies that could render outdated systems obsolete.—
Brian Deese,
Foreign Affairs,
9 Sep. 2025
Adverb
-
The system that would have calculated Brown’s risk score — or any defendant’s score — is not readily available to the public, but the Observer found a breakdown of the general formula through the foundation that helped develop Mecklenburg’s policies.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
12 Sep. 2025
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At least one Johnson County city is supporting a push to make Spanish language voting materials more readily available, with more discussions in other cities underway.—
Taylor O'Connor,
Kansas City Star,
12 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Lightly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lightly. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.
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