a. [OE. winterlic = OHG. wintarlîh (G. winterlich), ON. vetrligr, etc., f. WINTER sb.1 + -LY1; but in modern use a new formation (cf. summerly).]

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  1.  Of, belonging to, or occurring in winter. (Not always distinguishable from sense 2.)

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  c. 1000.  Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xi. 144. On þam timan wæs swiþe hefiʓtime wynter … and se winterlica wind wan mid þam forste.

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  1559.  W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 34. Into whiche [sc. tropic of winter] whan he [sc. the sun] doth enter, he maketh his wynterly retorne backwarde.

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1622.  Wither, Faire-Virtue, etc., O 7 b. Those tresses of Haire, which thy youth doe adorne, Will looke like the Meads in a Winterly morne.

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1628.  Venner, Baths, Advt. 13. For them … that are subiect to … cold winterly diseases.

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1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, III. 307. The Winterly Waters, and frequent shoures.

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1822.  T. Taylor, Apuleius, 215. The winterly frosts of Capricorn.

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1889.  Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, I. xii. 222. Even the winterly birds in the trees … were silent to-day.

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  2.  Having the character of, or characteristic of, winter; resembling winter or that of winter; cold and cheerless; wintry.

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a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Somerset (1662), 17. The Earth [of Somerset] in winter is as winterly, deep and dirty, as any in England.

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1675.  trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz. (ed. 3), 500. The Air growing more winterly in the Month of Aprill.

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1703.  S. Sewall, Diary, 16 March. All things look horribly winterly by reason of a great storm of Snow.

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1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xviii. (1818), II. 112. Though the summer has been so wet, and one may almost say winterly.

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1858.  Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, II. 223. The winterly brown aspect of the trees.

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1876.  J. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scot., II. v. 191. The fields wear a winterly face.

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  b.  fig.

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1611.  Shaks., Cymb., III. iv. 13. If ’t be Summer Newes Smile too ’t before: if Winterly, thou need’st But keepe that count’nance stil.

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1680.  Alsop, Mischief Impos., vi. 46. Incendiaries who … will suffer none to be cool that are in themselves of a more winterly temper.

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1798.  Mary Wollstonecr., Posth. Wks., IV. 76. Your note … produced a kind of winterly smile.

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1864.  W. J. Linton, Claribel, I. iii.

                    Let thy sweet spring smile
Shine on me through this winterly contempt.

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  Hence Winterliness.

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1891.  W. Sharp, in Mem. (1910), 174. With all the sunlit but yet sombre winterliness around.

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