Wightly

adv. arch. and dial. Forms: see WIGHT a. [f. WIGHT a. + -LY².]

  1.  Bravely, boldly, valiantly, ‘stoutly’; strongly, vigorously, forcibly, powerfully, energetically.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 7642. Wit þat vnled son dauid mete, And wightli wan o þam his dete.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter vi. 10. Thai ga noght whidere thai thoght: and shame thaim ful wightly.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 1405. Þai within on þe wall wightly withstondyn.

a. 1450.  Le Morte Arth., 2822. Wightly hys swerd A-bowte he wavyd.

a. 1450.  Ratis Raving, etc., 2. How wychtly þai sustenyt al tormentis … done to thaim.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XI. Prol. 64. To stand wichtly, and fecht in the forfront.

a. 1813.  in W. S. Crockett, Minstrelsy (1893), 101. Wightly can he wield a rung.

1819.  R. Gall, Poems & Songs, 49.

  2.  Actively, briskly, nimbly, with agility or alacrity; swiftly, rapidly; quickly, without delay.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 10131. Lyghtly to go, wightly to fle, Þey leften al, & fledde to þe se.

13[?].  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 688. He made non abode, Bot wyȝtly went hys way.

c. 1425.  Cast. Persev., 3226, in Macro Plays, 173. Now go we hens wytly to þe Trinite.

c. 1500.  Smith & Dame (Copland), A iij b. Croked I was truely Now may I walke wyghtly.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Sept., 5. Day, that was, is wightly past.

1583.  trans. Maison Neuve’s Gerileon, I. 8. The good king Floridamant … wightly forsaking the Saddle, set foote on ground.

a. 1650.  Sir Cawline, x. in Child, Ballads, III. 58. But rise vp wightlye, man, for shame! Neuer lye here soe cowardlye.

1757.  W. Thompson, Poems, Nativity, i. Wightly his Senses all were rapt into a Dream.

1884.  D. Grant, Lays & Leg. North, 75. Wichtly Dobbin reached the Kirkton.