副詞 literally:

1. in a literal sense
2. (intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration

1. Before changes were mad in the law, some prostitutes literally went on the streets. Now, they operate more discreetly from bars and clubs.
   在法律未修改之前，一些妓女直接在街上拉客; 現(xiàn)在，他們偷偷摸摸地活動在酒吧或夜總會了。
2. The prediction was literally accomplished.
   這個預(yù)言確實實現(xiàn)了。
3. Idioms usually cannot be translated literally in another language.
   成語通常不能照字面譯成另一種語言。

lit.er.al.ly

adv.（副詞）
In a literal manner; word for word:
照字面地，逐字地：
例句：
translated the Greek passage literally.
逐字翻譯希臘文章

Abbr. lit.In a literal or strict sense:
縮寫 lit.完全地，認(rèn)真的：在確切或嚴(yán)格的意義上：
例句：
Don`t take my remarks literally.
別把我的話當(dāng)真

Usage Problem
【用法疑難】
Really; actually:
真實地；確切地：
例句：
.There are people in the world who literally do not know how to boil water.(Craig Claiborne)
.世界上確實有不知道該怎么燒水的人.(克雷格·克萊本)

Used as an intensive before a figurative expression.
在修飾語前表強(qiáng)調(diào)

For more than a hundred years,critics have remarked on the incoherency of usingliterally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of .in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words..In 92', for example,H.W. Fowler cited the example
數(shù)百年來，批評家們一直在討論literally 的一種用法的不連續(xù)性， 這一用法使其具有與主要意義.和字面意思相吻合地.正好相反的含義。例如，在92'年，H.W.福勒援引了這樣一個例子
例句：
.The 300,000 Unionists . . . will be literally thrown to the wolves..
.這三十萬聯(lián)邦主義上者……確實會被扔進(jìn)狼群中.。

The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning ofliterally itself—if it did, the word would long since have come to mean .virtually. or .figuratively.—but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive meaning .without exaggeration,.as inThey had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended.This looser use of the wordliterally does not usually create problems, but it can lead to an inadvertently comic effect when the word is used together with an idiomatic expression that has its source in a frozen figure of speech,such as inI literally died laughing.
這一用法并不根源于literally 本身意義的演變——如果是這樣的話， 這個詞早就會有.幾乎.或.比喻地.的意思——而是來源于把這個詞用作一個一般的加強(qiáng)詞表示.毫不夸張.這樣一個自然趨勢，正如在事實上他們沒有獲得政府對這一計劃的幫助 中， 并沒有與句子的喻意形成任何對比。literally 的這一不精確的用法通常并不會產(chǎn)生什么問題， 但當(dāng)它與一個源于固定修飾的俗語連用時，會偶爾產(chǎn)生喜劇性效果，如我真的笑死了