adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In an eccentric direction or manner.
1. Not concentrically; not symmetrically with respect to the center.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith. (1690), 93. A Wheel irregulary made, excentrically hung; neither moves so easily, nor performs its Work so truely.
1703. Brit. Apollo, Supern. Paper, No. 1. 2/1. [The Moon] moves Eccentrically with Respect to Us.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 1206/1. The liver cells in Boltenia are … arranged in eccentrically radiated groups.
1875. Laslett, Timber & Timber Trees, 8. The pith is excentrically placed.
2. Out of one’s proper sphere; irregularly; in mod. use, oddly, whimsically, strangely.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 53, 55. Prudence is herein very sollicitous…. That nothing be done excentrically.
1737. Common Sense, 10 Sept. Women … are confined within the narrow Limits of Domestic Offices, and when they stray beyond them, they move excentrically, and consequently without Grace.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., II. 4. The skylight eccentrically patched like a broken head.
