adv., a. and sb. Mus. [It. ad agio at ease, at leisure.]
A. adv. A direction for the musical time in which a piece is to be sung or played: Slowly; leisurely and gracefully.
c. 1746. Garrick, Musical Lady, I. Deep despair now thrums adagio.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. vi. 348. Mr. Beckendorff began an air very adagio, gradually increasing the time in a kind of variation.
B. adj. Of musical movement: Slow, leisurely.
1773. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 252. A musical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement.
1788. A. Pasquin, Childr. Thespis (1792), 128. His words flow too quick to administer pleasure In adagio time, and precipitate measure.
1828. E. Holmes, Musicians of Germ., 70. In an adagio movement played by this gentleman … I found excellent taste.
C. sb. A slow movement in music; a piece of music in adagio time. Also fig.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 361. [He] sells accent, tone, And emphasis in score, and gives to prayer The adagio and andante it demands.
a. 1790. T. Warton, Wks., I. 187 (T.). He has no ear for musick, and cannot distingish a jig from an adagio.
1867. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 31. The adagio is hurried till it overtakes the allegro, and the allegro apes the manners of the presto.
1876. Geo. Eliot, D. Deronda, II. xxvii. 187. Said G. in an adagio of utter indifference.
