adv. [f. COMPACT a. + -LY2.] In a compact manner; closely, densely; concisely, tersely.

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1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 203. They know how and when to speake … soundly, pithily and compactly.

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1696.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3196/4. Several Closes of Meadow … lying compactly together.

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1817.  Byron, Beppo, xix. A Gondola … built lightly, but compactly.

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1841–71.  T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 421. The annuli, or rings … may be detected even in the most compactly formed Crustacea.

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1864.  Earl Derby, Iliad, IV. 349. A cloud of infantry, Compactly mass’d.

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