adv. Also wofully. [f. WOEFUL + -LY2.]
1. In a woeful manner or condition; miserably, grievously; mournfully, sadly. arch.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 198. I am A womman wofully bestad. Ibid., 267. Whan thei herde Hou wofully this cause ferde.
c. 1480. Henryson, Trial of Fox, 275. The Ȝow … Put out hir playnt on this wyis wofullie.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 302 b. As thou were so wofully arayed.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. v. 33. Where many soules sit wailing woefully.
16[?]. Middleton, etc., Old Law, V. i. These that do lead this day of jollity Doe march with Musick … Those that doe follow sad, and wofully.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Specialities Life, Rem. Wks. (1660), 35. That wofully distracted Church.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pickle, cxiii. [cv]. I know … what makes you laugh so woefully.
1865. Trollope, Belton Estate, xiii. ‘I suppose she thinks so of me,’ said Belton wofully.
1876. Swinburne, Erechtheus, 570. Wofully wed in a snow strewn bed.
2. So as to excite commiseration or dissatisfaction; grievously, deplorably, ‘sadly.’
Occas. as a mere intensive: cf. awfully, terribly.
1648. Jenkyn, Blind Guide, iii. 58. You say but very little … but in that little you wofully trifle.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., xxiv. Thou hast once wofully, irreparably deceived me.
1831. G. P. R. James, Philip Aug., xix. Of defensive armour the supply was wofully small.
1843. Peter Parley’s Ann., IV. 266. Mrs. Clinker, who was wofully, as she termed it, fond of pigs.
1885. Truth, 11 June, 928/1. If the oils at Burlington House are not specially good, the other exhibits are, with the fewest possible exceptions, wofully bad, and deplorably uninteresting.
