Literary notes about steadily (AI summary)
The term "steadily" is often employed to convey a sense of continuous, unwavering progress or persistence, whether referring to physical motion, emotional resolve, or the gradual unfolding of events. It marks an action or state that persists without abrupt deviation, as seen when weather conditions intensify over a harbor or troops move through the night [1, 2]. It also characterizes personal demeanor—portraying a firm look, measured conversation, or determined effort [3, 4, 5]—while simultaneously serving to underscore a broader, consistent trend in processes or developments, whether in the evolution of political power or the gradual strengthening of an individual's resolve [6, 7]. Thus, "steadily" not only enriches descriptions of movement and behavior but also emphasizes the persistent nature of change and continuity in narrative contexts [8, 9, 10].
- [pg 225] By-and-by, the wind having steadily risen, and still blowing right into the harbor bore the San Dominick swiftly on.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville - The first troops started at once, and during the night they marched slowly and steadily without hurry.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - “It seems it is the talk that you can understand,” said Mr. Riach, looking him steadily in the face.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson - The old worldling left the window, took a chair exactly opposite to mine, and looked at me steadily, with a hard and vicious smile.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - Though she looked steadily at me, I saw that she was rather confused.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - But whatever be the direction of the lead, the progress of the settlement has been steadily onward, with an impetus gained by the late disaster.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Their number will decrease steadily until they shall have become a bad tradition of a heedless past.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. Riis - It steadily strengthened, and having become quite clear diminished just as gradually.
— from Master and Man by graf Leo Tolstoy - Yet not the more could I define that sentiment, or analyze, or even steadily view it.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - There was no sound now in the observatory, and the lantern waned steadily.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells
