Ruthfully

Origin

From Middle English reowthfulliche, equivalent to ruthful + -ly.

Full definition of ruthfully

Adverb

1. (manner) In a manner that is ruthful:
1. Sorrowfully, ruefully.
• 1901, George Bernard Shaw, , Act III,CAESAR (ruthfully). Rufio, Rufio: my men at the barricade are between the sea party and the shore party. I have murdered them.
• 1997, K. Ayyappapanicker, Sahitya Akademi staff, Medieval Indian Literature: An Anthology, page 232,They tantalize, particularly when the speaker or the central character of the lyric is a prematurely married girl, ruthfully yearning to return to her parental home, and there, reunite with her childhood lover.
• 2001, Michael Innes, Death at the President's Lodging, page 188,No change, he reflected ruthfully a moment later, was to be got from Empson that way.
2. In a manner that causes pity; piteously.
• 1997, Neil W. Hamilton (quoting Owen Lattimore), Zealotry and Academic Freedom, page 313,This commonplace observation becomes very poignant when you are the man accused, and a man like McCarthy ruthfully exploits his advantage by making the accusations so sensational that the revelation of the truth seems drab and dull by comparison.
3. Compassionately; mercifully.
• 1999, Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862, page 285,Lee's wait was ruthfully short, although he might have traded the first news that reached him for a return to uncertainty.