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fully

FUUL-ee/ˈfʊli/

6 meanings of fully

Practice

  1. 1
    completelyadverb
    In a complete way, without anything lacking or defective; completely and entirely.

    The committee fully endorsed the new proposal after the hearing.

    He recovered fully after several months of careful rest.

    UsageOften right before an adjective or participle: fully trained, fully booked, fully aware.

    Similarcompletely, entirely, perfectly

    Oppositepartly, partially

    Note

    It also takes more and most, which lets William R. Murry title a book Becoming More Fully Human and treat wholeness as something a person can have more of.

  2. 2
    at leastadverb
    Used to emphasize that a stated quantity is at least as great as it seems.

    Fully three-quarters of the audience stayed for the encore.

    The journey took fully six hours longer than the schedule promised.

    UsageGoes right before a number or fraction: fully half the class, fully six hours.

    Similareasily

    Note

    It does not claim the quantity is complete. Fully half is simply half, said with emphasis and often a note of surprise, as when Matt Bai wrote in The New York Times that fully half of those polled expected the parties to cooperate.

  3. 3
    casual emphasisadverbcolloquial
    Used as a strong intensifier to mean really, actually, or literally.

    Wait, that's fully the same song they played at the party last night.

    We fully thought the trip was canceled, so we made other plans.

    UsageMostly in casual talk: we fully thought, that's fully him. In careful writing a reader may take it to mean "completely".

    Similartotally, really, genuinely, literally

    Note

    Casual speech has turned the word into an all-purpose intensifier meaning "really" rather than "completely". Someone fully wearing sweatpants is not wearing them more thoroughly, only truly. It keeps company with other conversational fillers, as in Lena Dunham's "I fully just imagined Eloise's home at the Plaza" (2015).

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    just asadverb
    Exactly or equally; typically placed before "as" to mark an equal comparison.

    The new recruit proved fully as skilled as the veterans.

    Her second novel was received fully as warmly as her first.

    UsagePlaced before the first as: fully as good as the first. The second as phrase can be omitted when the comparison is understood.

    Similarjust, quite

    Note

    A comparison word that does its work inside the as…as frame. Laura Cumming's 2018 piece on Haroon Mirza calls an installation fully as shocking as it is meant to be. Placed directly before the first as, it tells the reader the match is exact rather than approximate, often answering a suspicion that one side would fall short.

  2. 5
    adverbrare
    To the point of being full and no longer hungry; to satiation.

    Similarheartily

  3. 6
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To commit or send an accused person to trial.
    So I got run in, and was tried at Marylebone and remanded for a week, and then fullied (fully committed for trial), and got this stretch and a half.
    1879, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves' Language”, in Macmillan's Magazine
    Note

    In Victorian thieves' slang, the court's formula "fully committed for trial" was clipped into a verb. To be fullied was to be sent on from the magistrate to stand trial. It turns up in the passive, as in "straightway was fullied" from Arthur Morrison's A Child of the Jago (1896), and it takes regular endings: fullies, fullied. Long obsolete, it is the everyday adverb at heart, turned into a verb.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

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Origin

Old English fullīċe, which is full + -ly, became Middle English fully (also fulliche, volliche). German völlig and Swedish fullt, both meaning "fully," are related.