safely

From Middle English savely; equivalent to safe +‎ -ly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈseɪfli/

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• Hyphenation: safe‧ly

safely (comparative safelier or more safely, superlative safeliest or most safely)

1. In a safe manner; without risk; using caution above all else.
   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:

     With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […]

2. In a secure manner; without the possibility of injury or harm resulting.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 15, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cassock stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.

   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way.

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