Citations:abjectly

English citations of abjectly

					1851
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1. In an abject fashion; with great shame; desperately. [first attested c. 1350–1470]
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Leg and Arm. The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London.”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 486:

     So, deprived of one leg, and the strange ship of course being altogether unsupplied with the kindly invention, Ahab now found himself abjectly reduced to a clumsy landsman again; hopelessly eyeing the uncertain changeful height he could hardly hope to attain.