Confusedly

adv. [f. prec. + -LY².] In a confused manner.

  1.  With confusion of mind or feelings; in a disconcerted manner; with discomfiture, perplexity, or bewilderment.

1502.  Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), II. v. 93. Without the whiche, man shall be confusedly put out and departed from the companye of … those y^t be chosen.

1632.  Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 89. Yet remain’d shee … confusedly disquieted.

1857.  W. Collins, Dead Secret (1861), 112. Rosamond, looking confusedly and self-distrustfully from Mr. Orridge to her husband.

  2.  In confusion, in disorder; in a disorderly mass, crowd, etc.

1566.  J. Partridge, Plasidas, 39. At length he came where bucks great store did stand confusedly.

1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxvi. 7. Although many thinges bee mingled confusedly in the woorld.

1625.  K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, V. xviii. 395. As is usuall in great and sudden chances, they all talked confusedly, all without order, all together.

1713.  Angestein, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 224. Composed of many ruinous angular Columns lying confusedly.

1875.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. I. iii. 56. A mass composed of corals, shells … confusedly blended with earth, sand and gravel.

  † b.  Without order or rule, irregularly, promiscuously, here and there, now and then. Obs.

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet., 47. The use hereof appereth full ofte in al partes of our life, and confusedly is used emong al other matters.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. i. 118. Sharpe Stakes pluckt out of Hedges They pitched in the ground confusedly, To keepe the Horsemen off.

1620.  Venner, Via Recta (1650), 215. [Some] do confusedly use … beside the juyce of Tansie, the juyce of other hearbs.

1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, II. § 25. 168. Others … confusedly feeding on certaine venomous herbes.

  † 3.  In a blended manner, with fusion of component parts. Obs.

1530.  Palsgr., 141. They use to compounde these prepositions and les confusedly togyder, and tourne a les into avx, de les into des.

  4.  With confusion of perception, thought, or expression, and consequent obscurity or indistinctness.

a. 1533.  Frith, Disput. Purgatory, 164. M. More taketh this word death so confusedly, that no man can tell what he meaneth.

1609.  Bible (Douay), Gen. xi. Comm. He that speaketh so confusedly … is said to bable.

1670.  Barrow, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 75. Written so ill, and so confusedly, that I fear you will hardly be able to make anything of them.

1740.  J. Clarke, Educ. Youth (ed. 3), 126. They … contract a Habit of … talking loosely and confusedly.

1794.  G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., II. xvii. 293. The short-sighted see distant objects confusedly.

1866.  Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, II. xxix. 212. Which expressed rather confusedly the mingled character of the dislike he excited.