Fellow grammarians, have we lost the battle for not hyphenating an adverb adjective combo before a noun? In other words, phrases like "poorly defined law" rather than "poorly-defined law"?

I'm pretty sure CMOS agrees with me, but I see it all the time now.

We don't hyphenate adverb phrases when it's clear that the adverb modifies the following adjective, like when the adverb ends in -ly.

I'm with Zen on not using the hyphen when -ly is involved.

Good. I'm going to cling to you guys in this era of deteriorating standards.

I'm with Zen on not using the hyphen when -ly is involved.

Yeah, that's never needed.

I only learned that rule recently! I'd call it a recently learned rule, even.

There should be a reality TV show about editors making difficult calls on punctuation.

There should be a reality TV show about editors making difficult calls on punctuation.

Which TV chef yells at the contestants and makes them cry? Because that would be me.

(You can tell I don't watch cooking shows. I just know from commercials that there's at least one show with a really mean chef.)

There should be a reality TV show about editors making difficult calls on punctuation.

I'd be the one sighing heavily and giving people the disappointed-in-you face. The audience would hate me instantly.

(You can tell I don't watch cooking shows. I just know from commercials that there's at least one show with a really mean chef.)

Which is why I love Great British Bake-Off, people rarely cry, though some crack under self-induced stress--but then one of the comic-relief hosts goes over and comforts them! The judges just give people stern looks. No one yells.

In one season, one of the cooks tells one of the hosts "Can you come yell at me in half an hour?" And at the appointed time the cook called "I need yelled at!", and the host excused herself from the person she was talking to, ran over to the other cook and said "Get a bloody hold of yourself! Focus!" then ran back as the other cook said "Thank you!"