Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - merrily

1. If you say that someone merrily does something, you are critical of the fact that they do it without realizing that there are a lot of problems which they have not thought about. There they were, merrily describing their 16-hour working days while simultaneously claiming to be happily married... = blithely ADV: ADV with v c darkgreen]disapproval 2. If you say that something is happening merrily, you mean that it is happening fairly quickly, and in a pleasant or satisfactory way. The ferry cut merrily through the water... ADV: ADV with v 3. see also merry