4 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Happily \Hap"pi*ly\, adv [From {Happy}.]
1. By chance; peradventure; haply. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman.
2. By good fortune; fortunately; luckily.
Preferred by conquest, happily o'erthrown. --Waller.
3. In a happy manner or state; in happy circumstances; as he
lived happily with his wife.
4. With address or dexterity; gracefully; felicitously; in a
manner to success; with success.
Formed by thy converse, happily to steer From grave
to gay, from lively to severe. --Pope.
Syn: Fortunately; luckily; successfully; prosperously;
contentedly; dexterously; felicitously.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
happily
adv 1: in a joyous manner; "they shouted happily" [syn: {merrily},
{mirthfully}, {gayly}, {blithely}, {jubilantly}, {with
happiness}] [ant: {unhappily}]
2: in an unexpectedly lucky way "happily he was not injured"
[ant: {sadly}]
From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:
happily adv Of software, used to emphasize that a program is
unaware of some important fact about its environment, either because
it has been fooled into believing a lie, or because it doesn't care
The sense of `happy' here is not that of elation, but rather that of
blissful ignorance. "The program continues to run, happily unaware that
its output is going to /dev/null." Also used to suggest that a program
or device would really rather be doing something destructive, and is
being given an opportunity to do so "If you enter an O here instead
of a zero, the program will happily erase all your data." Neverheless,
use of this term implies a basically benign attitude towards the program:
It didn't mean any harm, it was just eager to do its job. We'd like to be
angry at it but we shouldn't, we should try to understand it instead. The
adjective cheerfully" is often used in exactly the same way
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
happily
Of software, used to emphasise that a program is unaware of
some important fact about its environment, either because it
has been fooled into believing a lie, or because it doesn't
care The sense of happy" here is not that of elation, but
rather that of blissful ignorance. "The program continues to
run, happily unaware that its output is going to /dev/null."
[{Jargon File}]
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