核心畫面
Start from the full-strength version: something is going badly, so badly that it hurts to watch or to feel. That is the word at its heaviest. English then wears the heaviness down until only the size is left, and the word becomes a plain 'very' — the speaker is no longer saying anything is bad, just that the amount is large.
可以從最重的那一端想起：事情糟到讓人看了難受、或痛得很厲害——那是這個字原本的重量。英文常把這種強烈的字用久了就磨掉…更多收起
可以從最重的那一端想起：事情糟到讓人看了難受、或痛得很厲害——那是這個字原本的重量。英文常把這種強烈的字用久了就磨掉了它的「壞」，只留下「程度很大」這一半，於是它變成一個普通的「非常」。所以同一個字可能在說「糟得不得了」，也可能只是在說「很」，差別要看它貼在什麼詞前面。原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
terriblyadv/ˈtɛɹ.ɪ.bli/
- 1
datedliterarySo as to cause terror or awe.
- The lion roared terribly.
- The mere sensuous impact of trumpet or saxophone, whatever it happened to be playing, was an echo, even though a faint echo, of that excitement and abandon. He wanted to taste, smell, hear: his senses were terribly alive.
- 2
Very; extremely.
- He's terribly busy and you really shouldn't bother him.
- The parsnip, stilton and chestnut combination may taste good, but it's not terribly decorative. In fact, dull's the word, a lingering adjectival ghost of nut roasts past that I'm keen to banish from the table.
- 3
Very badly.
- She took part in the karaoke, but sang terribly.
- “A joyride gone terribly wrong,” Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said during a news conference in Steilacoom, which is about 3 miles from the island.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。