Literary notes about drowsily (AI summary)
The word "drowsily" is employed by writers to convey a mood of lethargy, dreamlike disengagement, or a slow, almost mechanical rhythm in actions and speech. It often describes a character’s physical state—such as a languid gaze or a sleepy movement [1]—or a manner of speaking that suggests either weariness or absent-mindedness [2, 3]. It can also imbue the atmosphere with a surreal quality, as when nature itself seems to move in a relaxed, somnolent cadence [4, 5], or set a scene with a soft, drifting tone, like the slow sighing of the wind over distant moors [6].
- He stared at it drowsily, then brushed at it mechanically with one hand.
— from Motor Matt's Close Call; or, The Snare of Don Carlos by Stanley R. Matthews - ‘She don’t know me, Stephen; she just drowsily mutters and stares.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens - Edmund Clarke, releasing her and not yet fully awake, stammered drowsily: "Yes—I—took—you—for—a—burglar.
— from My Pretty Maid; or, Liane Lester by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs. - Drowsily and strangely doth its eye gaze upon me.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - The men were dog-tired, a long day's work had been followed by a long night's march, and they plodded along drowsily through the darkness.
— from The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle - The wind was sighing drowsily across the moors, while high on the rugged cairns on the hill-tops it was wuthering mournfully beneath the wan grey sky.
— from Drolls From Shadowland by J. H. (Joseph Henry) Pearce
