sorely
- 01 C2 Proficiency
in a way that causes physical or mental pain.
in a manner that causes or reflects physical pain or acute mental distress.
Simple“He sighed sorely as he looked at the ruins of his childhood home.”
In context“The wounded soldier groaned sorely, his breath coming in ragged gasps as the medics worked to stabilize him.”
Teacher's tipThis physical sense is less common in modern speech; learners will mostly encounter it in older literature or formal poetry.
Antonyms
“Liverpool’s attackers were full of the speed and invention sorely lacking for much of last season.”
“If they hoped the trip to Meadow Lane would be the start of the uplift, they were sorely misguided.”
From Middle English sorely, from Old English sārlīċ (adjective), sārlīċe (adverb); equivalent to sore + -ly.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.