Definition of "deferentially" [def•er•en•tial•ly]

• In a deferential manner. (adverb)

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• "We left them to their work and deferentially gave a park police officer our statements."
• "When I told Pricilla, a Durban-born 24-year-old of Zulu ethnicity who is working here as a volunteer, that I've been attending these U.N. climate conferences since Kyoto in 1996, she deferentially asked me, "Sir, why has it taken so long to find a solution to just this one single matter?""
• "As teenagers, Adrian was the "serious" one among Tony's gang of friends—that word is used often in the novel to distinguish between those who bravely confront life's profound questions and those who, like Tony and, Tony suggests, almost the entire English middle class, are content to live quietly and deferentially."