literally

副词 literally:

1. in a literal sense
2. (intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration

1. Before changes were mad in the law, some prostitutes literally went on the streets. Now, they operate more discreetly from bars and clubs.
   在法律未修改之前，一些妓女直接在街上拉客; 现在，他们偷偷摸摸地活动在酒吧或夜总会了。
2. The prediction was literally accomplished.
   这个预言确实实现了。
3. Idioms usually cannot be translated literally in another language.
   成语通常不能照字面译成另一种语言。

lit.er.al.ly

adv.（副词）
In a literal manner; word for word:
照字面地，逐字地：
例句：
translated the Greek passage literally.
逐字翻译希腊文章

Abbr. lit.In a literal or strict sense:
缩写 lit.完全地，认真的：在确切或严格的意义上：
例句：
Don`t take my remarks literally.
别把我的话当真

Usage Problem
【用法疑难】
Really; actually:
真实地；确切地：
例句：
.There are people in the world who literally do not know how to boil water.(Craig Claiborne)
.世界上确实有不知道该怎么烧水的人.(克雷格·克莱本)

Used as an intensive before a figurative expression.
在修饰语前表强调

For more than a hundred years,critics have remarked on the incoherency of usingliterally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of .in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words..In 92', for example,H.W. Fowler cited the example
数百年来，批评家们一直在讨论literally 的一种用法的不连续性， 这一用法使其具有与主要意义.和字面意思相吻合地.正好相反的含义。例如，在92'年，H.W.福勒援引了这样一个例子
例句：
.The 300,000 Unionists . . . will be literally thrown to the wolves..
.这三十万联邦主义上者……确实会被扔进狼群中.。

The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning ofliterally itself—if it did, the word would long since have come to mean .virtually. or .figuratively.—but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive meaning .without exaggeration,.as inThey had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended.This looser use of the wordliterally does not usually create problems, but it can lead to an inadvertently comic effect when the word is used together with an idiomatic expression that has its source in a frozen figure of speech,such as inI literally died laughing.
这一用法并不根源于literally 本身意义的演变——如果是这样的话， 这个词早就会有.几乎.或.比喻地.的意思——而是来源于把这个词用作一个一般的加强词表示.毫不夸张.这样一个自然趋势，正如在事实上他们没有获得政府对这一计划的帮助 中， 并没有与句子的喻意形成任何对比。literally 的这一不精确的用法通常并不会产生什么问题， 但当它与一个源于固定修饰的俗语连用时，会偶尔产生喜剧性效果，如我真的笑死了