abruptly,adv.|əˈbrʌptlɪ|[f.abrupt a. + -ly2.]In an abrupt manner. Hence,1.With a sudden break off, without warning or preparation, suddenly.1590GreeneNeuer too late (1600) 18And so as I begun passionately, I breake off abruptly. Farewell.
1670MiltonP.R. ii. 10Now missing him their joy so lately found, So lately found, and so abruptly gone.
1783CowperLett.Nov. 24Wks.1876, 149Your mother wants room for a postscript so my lecture must conclude abruptly.
1838DickensNich. Nick. (C.D.ed.) xxii. 171‘Will you let me take the bundle now?’ asked Nicholas, abruptly changing the theme.
1862AnstedChannel Isl. (ed.2) i. i. 3Fifty miles more to theeast..the French coast abruptly bends round to thenorth.
2.Interruptedly, with sudden breaks.1607TopsellFour-footed Beasts (1673) 586The body[of the Civet-cat]..having divers & sundry black spots scattered abruptly throughout.
1618BoltonFlorusPref.,The varietie of matter makes the minde abruptly flit from one thing to another.
1850LynchTheoph. Trinal. ix. 162The generations do not succed each other abruptly, but pass one into the other like the pictures in dissolving views.
3.Precipitously.1623BinghamXenophon 59The Carduchan Mountaines being abruptly steepe, lay directly hanging ouer the same Riuer.
1877KinglakeCrimea (ed.6) III. i. 3It is the high land nearest to the shore which falls most abruptly.
4.Bot.With a sudden termination; as abruptly pinnate, when several pairs of leaflets are formed without an intermediate one at the end.1870HookerStud.Flora 183Scabiosa succisa..Rootstock short, abruptly truncate.
Ibid.18Fumaria densiflora..lower petal abruptly dilated at the tip.
