Wickedly

adv. [f. as prec. + -LY².] In a wicked manner, in various senses of the adj.

  1.  In the way of wilful wrong-doing; iniquitously, immorally.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 4376. Leuer es me be pour and lele Þan wikudli at win catell.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1203. Wykkedlyche al þat gode he dyspendyþ.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiii. (George), 414. Þu dois nocht anerly Wrang til ws, bot als wykitly Callis oure godis al dewilis.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1918, Ariadne. But wikkedely he quitte hire kyndenesse. Ibid. (c. 1386), Clerk’s T., 667. He wikkedly … Hath mordred bothe his children.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 2425. Ȝe at wickid ere within ay wickidly ȝe thinke.

1535.  Coverdale, Gen. xix. 7. O brethren, do not so wickedly. Ibid., Prov. x. 2. Treasures that are wickedly gotten, profit nothinge.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 338 b. Scipio Africane the seconde … was wekedly slaine in his bedde.

1562.  Winȝet, Cert. Tractates, § 66, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 116. An hæretik denyand wickitlie the Father, the Sone, and the Haly Gaist.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 365. Into the chamber wickedlie he stalkes.

1611.  B. Jonson, Catiline, IV. K 2. No man Could be so wickedly, or fondly stupide.

1734.  Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 231. Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.

1808.  Mrs. M. T. Kemble, Day after Wedding, 31. Somebody has deceived you, wickedly deceived you.

  2.  Harmfully, injuriously; fiercely, savagely, severely, cruelly; terribly, disastrously; in later use (chiefly jocular), very badly, abominably, execrably, vilely, ‘horridly.’

13[?].  Cursor M., 15840 (Gött.). Quilis þai him war þus handland wikidli als þai moght.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 1918. Þey wiþ fyn force for-barred his strokes, & woundede him wikkedly.

c. 1400.  Laud Troy Bk., 13149. Him and euery another prince That haue died here thus wickedly.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 86. Þis puluis bigileþ neuer þe paciente ne þe cirurgene, for it doþ not wickedly.

c. 1440.  Engl. Conq. Irel., 53. Some thay vndide and bettyn vickydly.

1556.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 245. A great number … did run to see him go so wickedly to his death.

1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1860), 32. A Iewes letter scrible scrable ouer the Copurtenaunce of a mans countenaunce will dash a body wickedly.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 54. Ladies … most wickedly be-painted.

1762.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xv. Do you know whether my fiddle ’s in tune or no?… ’Tis wickedly strung.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871), I. 4. The night was now setting in, wickedly black and dreary.

  3.  Mischievously, maliciously, roguishly.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xxiii. A glowering visage, with its thin lips parted wickedly. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., V. His cat looked so wickedly at me, as if I were a blood-relation of the birds upstairs.

1880.  Mrs. Forrester, Roy & V., iii. ‘I thought you would be tremendously obliged to me,’ whispered Netta wickedly.