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In one, Silvio Berlusconi was laughing with Tony Blair; in another, he was chatting affably with George W Bush. Jacques Chirac, Kofi Annan, even Pope Benedict XVI: the roll call of former leaders went on – and Berlusconi, in a somewhat more youthful guise, was with them all.
Having puffed a few cigarettes to steel himself for he was always a man of poise, despite his tormented past—he approached him affably and guided him by the shoulder to his paintings hanging there.
Even the most affably docile, such as Zafarullah Khan Jamali, prime minister until June, are prone to buckle under pressure from their parties and voters.
"Why", the professor asked, "are you blithely defying the pilot's instruction to buckle your seat belt?" The haredi explained affably that for him the pilot was the poritz, Yiddish for the autocratic Polish squire who lorded it over the Jewish shtetl.
This novel calls out for a broad, bawdy climax, and pays off only with life going affably on".Schmidt Delivered" is not awful.
This development would seem a bizarre twist in anybody's tale, let alone that of one of Britain's best-loved actors – but Hopkins affably hands chief credit for it all to his wife, Stella.
The film pays credit where it's due: Meek's achievements owed much to his long-suffering musicians, including a future guitarist of Deep Purple; half of Chas and Dave (played by an affably gangling Ralf Little); and bullishly no-nonsense drummer Clem Cattini (James Corden, presumably filmed before overexposure did for him, and all the more likeable for it).
A nice surprise, incidentally, is how good De Niro is: he's been coasting affably on his sitcom patriarch routine for a while, in the Meet the Parents films, but he makes a fully formed character out of it here, and his testiness gives the film extra ballast.
The service is spot-on: warm, personable and obliging, and the charming owner mingles affably with his guests to ensure a good time is being had.
Now in its fifth series – and with an affably twee new spin-off show, An Extra Slice, fronted by Jo Brand – GBBO shows no signs for me of, ahem, going stale.
There's good background material on Ai's days on the 1980s New York downtown scene, while the contemporary footage shows Ai being quietly, affably defiant towards the authorities who never cease to persecute him.
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Real-world application tested
The primary grammatical function of "affably " is to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb, describing how an action is performed. It functions as an adverb of manner , indicating the way in which someone does something in a friendly and approachable manner. Ludwig confirms that the word is usable in written English.
Expression frequency: Very common
