| / English Dictionary |
INVOLUNTARILY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Against your will
Example:
he was involuntarily held against his will
Classified under:
Antonym:
voluntarily (out of your own free will)
Pertainym:
involuntary (not subject to the control of the will)
Context examples:
A symptom of neurologic or psychiatric dysfunction in which the individual involuntarily and meaninglessly repeats a recently heard word, series of words, or a song.
(Echolalia, NCI Thesaurus)
So he was harnessed in again, and proudly he pulled as of old, though more than once he cried out involuntarily from the bite of his inward hurt.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
The response is characterized by the infant's arms symmetrically spreading out to the side and then back to the midline, and involuntarily flexion of the fingers and toes.
(Moro Reflex, NCI Thesaurus)
Her husband involuntarily groaned as she turned to him and said lovingly: Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible task.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
And from these circumstances, he replied (his quick eye fixed on hers), you infer perhaps the probability of some negligence—some—(involuntarily she shook her head)—or it may be—of something still less pardonable.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
"Am I selfish?" the question slipped out involuntarily and in a tone of surprise, for the one virtue on which he prided himself was generosity.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
When he strangled, quite involuntarily his arms and legs clawed the water and drove him up to the surface and into the clear sight of the stars.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Contagious yawning is triggered involuntarily when we observe another person yawn -it is a common form of echophenomena- the automatic imitation of another's words (echolalia) or actions (echopraxia).
(Why Is Yawning so Contagious?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Here Fanny, who could not but listen, involuntarily shook her head, and Crawford was instantly by her side again, entreating to know her meaning; and as Edmund perceived, by his drawing in a chair, and sitting down close by her, that it was to be a very thorough attack, that looks and undertones were to be well tried, he sank as quietly as possible into a corner, turned his back, and took up a newspaper, very sincerely wishing that dear little Fanny might be persuaded into explaining away that shake of the head to the satisfaction of her ardent lover; and as earnestly trying to bury every sound of the business from himself in murmurs of his own, over the various advertisements of A most desirable Estate in South Wales; To Parents and Guardians; and a Capital season'd Hunter.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Involuntarily he glanced up and around to see if there were any trace of those opportune levin-flashes and thunderbolts which, in the Acta Sanctorum, were wont so often to cut short the loose talk of the scoffer.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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