noddingly

adv

1. With a nodding motion, possibly expressing agreement.
2. To a very minor degree; slightly.

   “You could name ten thousand goodish books that you might, without any pressing necessity, noddingly know; you might name a hundred authors that cultured persons would be expected to talk about.”

   “You may find in the first few months that your budgeted estimates are only noddingly close to your actual expenses.”

   “In the primary and secondary schools, the student is taught the rudiments of literacy and arithmetic; is introduced to history and literature; acquires the beginner's skills in mathematics; is noddingly acquainted with science; and in general, is given a perspective on the modern world and of his and her place in it.”

   “Emma may claim to have copied that very poem out of Elegant Extracts, but Austen herself, and any reader even noddingly familiar with the anthology, would have known that David Garrick's 'A Riddle' from 1757 was far too saucy and laden with innuendo to have been admitted to Knox's edifying volume.”