safely
Americanadverb
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without harm or injury.
The travel team has arrived safely and on schedule.
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without risk or danger.
While we sit safely in our air-conditioned homes complaining, he’s driving across the country working for change.
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in a way that protects from loss, damage, or harm.
I wanted that piece of paper safely filed away, just in case I needed to look at it again.
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without likelihood of being wrong; with reasonable assurance.
I think we can safely say that the zoo expects some puma kittens later this year!
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of safely
Explanation
Do something in a careful or cautious way, and you'll do it safely. The most important thing you'll learn in a drivers ed class is to drive safely. "Travel safely!" you might call to a departing friend. You're encouraging them to avoid danger as they make their way home. You can bike safely by wearing a helmet and using hand signals, and use power tools safely by following all the rules and focusing on your work. Safely comes from safe and its Latin root salvus, "uninjured or in good health."
Vocabulary lists containing safely
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Top law enforcement officials in Los Angeles said they mobilized federal, state and local agencies throughout California, arresting suspects on suspicion of sex crimes and ensuring that victims were ‘safely rescued.’
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026
If not, the receipt of this will tell you that we are 'safely landed.'
From Canada and the States by Watkin, E. W. (Edward William)
Some nonentity had been 'safely delivered of a son' at Crayfield, the village where he had passed his youth and childhood.
From A Prisoner in Fairyland by Blackwood, Algernon
They rest so lightly on the water, that you are never certain of being 'safely stowed.'
From The World of Waters A Peaceful Progress o'er the Unpathed Sea by Osborne, Mrs. David
It was very brief, simply saying that the Army of the Potomac had 'safely recrossed the Rappahannock,' and was now at its old position on the north bank of that stream.
From The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln A Narrative And Descriptive Biography With Pen-Pictures And Personal Recollections By Those Who Knew Him by Browne, Francis F. (Francis Fisher)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
