adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
breathe slowly
▪ Breathe slowly and try to relax.
cook sth gently/slowly (=on a low heat)
▪ Reduce the heat and cook gently for 20 minutes.
grow rapidly/slowly/steadily
▪ The economy has grown steadily.
move quickly/slowly/steadily etc
▪ The plane moved slowly along the runway, then stopped.
slowly/gradually
▪ Things are gradually changing.
start badly/well/slowly etc
▪ Any new exercise program should start slowly.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
become
▪ In these areas some houses were abandoned and slowly became derelict.
▪ Three slowly becomes obsessed with cooking, cleaning, nice sweaters and the little specks of food stuck between teeth.
▪ He would slowly become the focal point of his life.
▪ He became slowly aware of his surroundings, like a man emerging from a long, drugged sleep.
▪ Her trunk movements slowly became more controlled, so that Rose could begin to balance.
▪ Worse, it was slowly becoming an overgrown weedy lot.
▪ Pores enlarge and the skin slowly becomes coarser, as its natural collagen hardens.
▪ That patch had slowly become an image of despair and frustration over many occasions since she had first shared his bed.
begin
▪ She put her hand over its back and then slowly began to climb down.
▪ An ice age begins slowly, almost imperceptibly, when the average temperature drops by a few degrees.
▪ The paratroop officer failed and spent two years in prison, then slowly began to build his platform for government.
▪ He was angry and felt humiliated, but with each passing day, he slowly began to accept his situation.
▪ As the final starbursts exploded above the ferry, the fishing boat was set alight and slowly began to sink.
▪ They emerge from periods of punctuated equilibrium with radically different structures that once again begin slowly evolving.
▪ They began slowly, but dominated the second half.
▪ He began slowly, afraid he was going to do it all wrong.
change
▪ The common grounds of everyday life were slowly changing, at least from where I stood, and so was the weather.
▪ He waited politely, but while he was waiting his aspect slowly changed.
▪ These ferns began to slowly change shape and structure during the Devonian, and some became tall and tree-like.
▪ Future Buildings Housing will change slowly, lagging far behind technology capability.
▪ People change slowly, but they change.
▪ Yet the climate of opinion is slowly changing, reflecting the gradually widening appreciation of disability in society as a whole.
▪ Opinions changed slowly in these wide-open spaces; they were not subject to the shifting whims of urban taste.
come
▪ However, the perm has just come slowly back again.
▪ The arm seemed to be made of lead, but the circulation slowly came back.
▪ Without answering, she left the room and came slowly down the stairs.
▪ He came slowly and deliberately across the fields to the back door.
▪ In her serene room, I have slowly come to feel safe.
▪ New ideas came slowly to him through his studies.
▪ The tears come slowly at first, easing down my cheeks.
drive
▪ We drove slowly to where a sentry stood.
▪ He drove slowly, with old-fashioned care, easing the Wolseley through the Saturday shoppers in the centre of the town.
▪ It drove slowly, trailing her.
▪ Toy trucks moved between hangars; a minute tractor drove slowly down the main runway.
▪ The only traffic is usually other neighbors, folks who drive slowly and watch out for children and pets.
▪ Rose drove slowly, but her face was stiff with tension.
▪ Jean drove slowly home, automatically, her mind filled with dread.
grow
▪ The traditional markets of western equipment companies are growing slowly, if at all.
▪ Their steady, reliable earnings growth attracts investors primarily when the economy is growing slowly or not at all.
▪ As time passed, the face in the picture grew slowly more terrible.
▪ The numbers of the bilingual service providers which are already mentioned are growing slowly.
▪ The demand for Navajo blankets slowly grew until the railroad arrived at reservation boundaries in 1881.
▪ Individuals feed and grow slowly, spending longer at each growth stage and ultimately producing fewer eggs.
▪ It was slowly growing louder and louder.
move
▪ She was moving slowly along the edge of the pavement when a car door swung open in front of her, blocking her path.
▪ Despite the quick beginning, the effort moved slowly for much of 1980.
▪ Each year the seasons would move slowly back through the calendar until Christmas ended up in the summer.
▪ As a result, the stalled negotiations began to move slowly ahead, with some of them leading to mutually profitable agreements.
▪ We would be wise, however, to move slowly.
▪ Penelope outlined their bodies together and began to move slowly, very slowly, closing her eyes.
▪ Nothing but the Man moved, and he moved slowly and seemed to get bigger all the time.
▪ I felt Frank begin to move slowly inside me and I felt the doors to my body open.
nod
▪ He nodded slowly and she felt his gaze drift to the gold band on her wedding finger.
▪ She looked at me, nodded slowly and set the trowel on the wall.
▪ He nods slowly, sits down.
▪ Scott nodded slowly, opening his eyes.
▪ Blanche nodded slowly and ran her tongue over her lips.
▪ They nodded slowly, solemnly, like a jury passing sentence.
open
▪ He pulled the door open slowly.
▪ Then he slowly opened his fist to run the palm over the edge of his plate, depositing the seeds.
▪ I watched its blue and red wings slowly opening and closing on my chest.
▪ He closed his eyes for an instant, then slowly opened them.
▪ Then the doors opened slowly and a woman came out and stood tranquilly on the steps.
rise
▪ After a moment he rose slowly, poured himself a whisky, returned to the Chesterfield and took a dismal sip.
▪ Did one lift after death like a feather, rising slowly?
▪ White-faced, too shocked for tears, she rose slowly to her feet.
▪ The jet rose slowly, at first, and then ever so steeply, and the spectators cheered and clapped.
▪ Aubrey rose slowly to his feet.
▪ The slowly rising death rate for malignancies masks several cross-currents.
▪ Hold on to the bannister rail and lower your heels down slowly, then slowly rise on tiptoe.
▪ Still traveling above escape velocity, it slowly rose and grew fainter over Alberta, until it was no longer visible.
speak
▪ The speech lasted exactly forty-five minutes, which, particularly as Baldwin spoke slowly, was not long.
▪ She spoke Slowly with little rise and fall to her voice.
▪ I have found one must speak slowly to people who live in the back streets of London.
▪ Bob speaks slowly, laboriously, didactically.
▪ He spoke slowly and clearly and smiled a lot.
▪ Sabour spoke slowly, too, and he had a rather unnerving dead-level gaze.
▪ He spoke slowly and without inflection.
▪ He began asking me about my studies, speaking slowly and seemingly from someplace very far away.
start
▪ But it will start slowly, with initial plans for only four new superstores this year.
▪ Each team started slowly offensively before catching fire in the final seven minutes of the opening period.
▪ Against Team Cotswold, Partners started slowly and went 5-0 down and a late recovery was not enough to save the set.
▪ They should be started slowly because of anticholinergic side effects that can occur, especially in older patients.
▪ But you know that the accelerating effect on a Secondary Darkfall starts slowly and gains momentum.
▪ He rose and then dived within her, starting slowly as if to the beating of a primal drum.
▪ Their conversation starts slowly and in ritual fashion.
▪ Then start slowly, and build up your speed as you go along.
turn
▪ And without their thoughts, my mind turned slowly on the blaze in the armchair, one day coming.
▪ Mr Chen was delighted: he snapped pictures while the spools of the tape recorder turned slowly.
▪ I turned slowly away and felt the rush and zip of violently animated matter.
▪ He kept his eye on a tan Ford turning slowly into the station and coming to a stop near the service area.
▪ She turned slowly and looked at the figure in the chair.
▪ Through the high-powered telescope, they could see that the asteroid was very irregular, and turning slowly end over end.
▪ It turned slowly, which made things inside just heavy enough to stay on the ground.
walk
▪ Silently, Kirov moved away from the table and began to walk slowly down the street.
▪ An elderly man is walking slowly and painfully close to the wall, using it as support.
▪ Giles walked slowly and quietly, thankful to be rescued.
▪ They walk slowly through the halls.
▪ He left the hospital and began to walk slowly along the boulevard leading back to the centre of Perugia.
▪ They waited while the project supervisor and two of his assistants emerged from the airlock, then walked slowly toward the crater.
▪ Then they walked slowly back to the shop.
▪ In contrast walking slowly into a room may indicate reticence or apprehension.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Slowly prices began to fall.
▪ Ann drove away slowly.
▪ Can you speak more slowly? I can't understand what you're saying.
▪ He got up slowly out of his chair and came towards me.
▪ Her condition is slowly improving.
▪ Large white clouds drifted slowly across the deep blue sky.
▪ Lynne slowly began to realize the job wasn't as easy as it seemed.
▪ The situation is slowly improving.
▪ Their relationship has developed slowly, but they now consider each other close friends.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Finally she turned round and, slowly and very reluctantly, began to make her way back towards the house.
▪ Gradually I descended the spruce tree and slowly crept toward the feeding birds.
▪ I woke slowly and swam up from the bottom of a dark sea.
▪ Some had been killed outright by flying shrapnel, others had been badly wounded and had died slowly.
▪ Start with a puddle and progress slowly to a small pool and shallow stream.
▪ The contagion spread slowly at first, almost unnoticed.
▪ The hospital machinery moved into action, but slowly.
▪ Turning around, as in making a 360-degree motion and seeing the surroundings spin slowly around you.