Definition of "literally"

All events became omens; I lost the ability to take anything literally.

1991, Douglas Coupland, “Dead at 30 Buried at 70”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press

[…] Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by literally resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.

2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club‎

As lawmakers and staff rushed out, aides snatched the boxes containing the Electoral College certificates, making sure that the vandals could not literally steal the results of the election.

2021 January 7, Luke Broadwater, Emily Cochrane, “Inside the Capitol, the Sound of the Mob Came First”, in The New York Times‎

The house was literally electrified; and it was only from witnessing the effects of her genius that he could guess to what a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried.

1827, Sir Walter Scott, “Appendix to Introduction”, in Chronicles of the Canongate‎, archived from the original on 15 June 2021

You literally become the ball in a tennis match, you become the report that you are working on […]

1993, Wayne W. Dyer, Real Magic, page 193

[O]ne can assume that the millions or billions of ringgit spent on the war against drugs have gone down the drain, literally.

2017 April 22, New Straits Times, Malaysia, page 20

Pearl: Steven, we are not like the No Home Boys. We are literally standing in your home right now.

2015, “On the Run”, in Steven Universe