English

Adverb

summarily ‎(comparative more summarily, superlative most summarily)

1. (manner) In a summary manner.

   They were fired summarily at a single plant-wide meeting.

   • 1849, Charles Fitzgerald, Ordinance enabling transportation of convicts to Western Australia,

     […] and any offender found with firearms in his possession contrary to this Ordinance, shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof summarily convicted before any one or more Justice or Justices of the Peace, of being so illegally at large as aforesaid, shall be kept to hard labour on any of the Roads or Public Works of the said colony, for any time not exceeding three calendar months.

   • c.1885-1900, John Knox Laughton, Rowley, William (1690?-1768), article in Dictionary of National Biography,

     […] but in July 1745 he was summarily ordered by the secretary of state, the Duke of Newcastle, to return to England.

   • 1955, Hugo Black, Supreme Court of the United States, In re Murchison: Opinion of the Court,

     It is true that contempt committed in a trial courtroom can under some circumstances be punished summarily by the trial judge.

2. (duration) Over a short period of time, briefly.

   He covered the topic summarily in an answer to a question.

   • 1950, Augustine of Hippo, Marcus Dods (translator), The City of God, Book XX, Chapter 14,

     After this mention of the closing persecution, he summarily indicates all that the devil, and the city of which he is the prince, shall suffer in the last judgment.

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