One way to picture merely: you say what something is, then quietly shut the door behind it — that much and nothing past it. The word adds no new information; it only pushes whatever follows down to its smallest reading, so 'I merely asked' means the asking was the whole of it.
可以想成 merely 是講完一件事之後，順手把後面的門關上：就這樣，沒有更多了。它不會改變你講的內容，只是把那件事的份量壓到最低——I merely asked 的意思是「我就只是問了一下」，問完就結束，沒有別的意圖藏在後面。
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原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
merelyadv/ˈmɪəli/
- 1
Without any other reason etc.; only, just, and nothing more.
- But let us not be unfair to the kibitzers. Not all players hate 'em. Some merely dislike 'em.
- All these people, who have tried to set you against me out of envy and love of slander – and some too merely passing on what they have been told by others – all these are very difficult to deal with.
- 2
obsoleteWholly, entirely.
- It is not forgot, since the acute and distinct Arminius was perverted meerly by the perusing of a namelesse discourse writt'n at Delf, which at first he took in hand to confute.
- I am sorry to say, that I doubt if there is a judge in Massachusetts who is prepared to resign his office, and get his living innocently, whenever it is required of him to pass sentence under a law which is merely contrary to the law of God.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。