fishingly

English

Etymology

From fishing +‎ -ly.

Adverb

fishingly (not comparable)

1. In a manner that suggests fishing, such as groping in search of something, or seeking compliments.
   • 1858, Macphail's Edinburgh ecclesiastical journal and literary review, page 285:

     Monk enquired fishingly whether Presbytery, to which he was well inclined on the whole, might not be thought somewhat rigid.

   • 2012, Samuel Whittemore Fowler, Alive! Volume 2, page 96:

     But the pen-tongued and compulsive verbalizer / Goes fishingly groping for words