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icily

American  
[ahy-suh-lee] / ˈaɪ sə li /

adverb

  1. in an icy manner.

    I received him icily because of the harsh way he had treated me.


icily British  
/ ˈaɪsɪlɪ /

adverb

  1. in an icy or reserved manner

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of icily

First recorded in 1840–50; icy + -ly


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.

See Examples For:

Djrum, the project of British musician Felix Manuel, issued “Under Tangled Silence,” an icily pretty record that combined jazzy and neoclassical piano flourishes with fleet and skittering drum programming borrowed from ’90s styles like jungle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025

Caroline hugs Ken, and after icily embracing Shiv, kicks off a baby reveal exchange for the ages.

From Salon ● May 22, 2023

Sean Connery carried it off with icily disdainful style, perhaps at the baccarat table, in full evening dress with a cigarette hanging from his lips.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 25, 2020

“Babylon” was greeted frostily at its premiere in Munich in 2012, and even more icily after it was revised and re-premiered in Berlin last year; even when Mr. Widmann fails, he fails upward.

From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2020

“I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep —” “Excuse me,” said Snape icily.

From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

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