adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In a fainting manner; † feebly, † faint-heartedly; like one who is fainting.
1576. A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 41. This letter is not onely lamentably indited, but also faintingly inuented.
1586. A. Day, The English Secretary, II. (1625), 108. And albeit he was … likeliest of all other to attaine the victory, yet … he faintingly withdrew.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., ix. § 1 (1643), 470. He [the Bear] being greedy of the hony in the tree, ceaseth not to push against the engine, untill at last his many knocks cause him faintingly to fall.
1839. Lady Lytton, Cheveley (ed. 2), I. vii. 135. Mademoiselle began to purse up her mouth, close her drab-coloured eyes, and incline her head faintingly towards his shoulder.
1844. Ld. Houghton, Memorials of Many Scenes, A Dream in a Gondola, 96.
| Became a deft canoe, light-wove | |
| Of painted bark, gay-set with lustrous shells, | |
| Faintingly rocked within a lonesome cove. |
