† 1. After the manner of a domesticated animal.
1550. Thomas, Ital. Gram., Domesticamente, familiarely or homely.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 101. Ptolomeus Philadelphe … having a hinde-calf … brought it so familiarly tame, that [etc.].
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s The Institutes of the Lawes of England, 59. If any shall happen to be made tame, and by custome goe familiarly in and out, fly abroad and return as Dear, Swans, Peacocks, Pigeons, and the like.
2. Like one who has an intimate acquaintance (with either persons or things); intimately.
14[?]. Prose Legends, in Anglia, VIII. 162. She presumed to do nothinge of hir-selfe but famylierly taghte of þe holy goste.
1548. Hall, Chron., 66. The kyng of England … them honorably embraced and familierly kyssed.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey (1677), 231.
| And Cnossus the prime City was of these | |
| Where Minos reigned; the great Minos that, | |
| Who often used with great Chronides | |
| Familiarly of old to sit and chat. |
1748. Hartley, Observations on Man, II. iii. 287. Two ill Men can scarce become known to each other familiarly.
1809–10. Coleridge, The Friend (1865), 113. The Lord Chancellor Bacon lived in an age of court intrigues, and was familiarly acquainted with all the secrets of personal influence.
1865. The Saturday Review, XX. 5 Aug., 169/2. Men of letters do not stand any nearer to one another than doctors or parsons or lawyers, and yet we never hear of the supreme desirableness of doctors or lawyers being brought more familiarly together.
† b. In a bad sense: With undue freedom. Obs.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 68. Her whom his aged father … had too familiarly vsed.
3. As an every-day matter or matter of course; commonly, usually. Obs. exc. with words implying knowledge.
1576. A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 226. Into that bondage it bringeth them, by vsing themselues familiarly to such foule enormities, as you your selfe incurre, and lye tumbling in accustomably.
1621–51. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. II. iii. 77. There be of them too that familiarly drink salt Sea-water, all their lives, eate raw meat, grasse, and that with delight.
1674. Boyle, Excell. Theol., II. iv. 178. The familiarly visible stars.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 202. Scenes with which he was familiarly conversant.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 207/1. The form of crane which is most familiarly known is that which is called the jib-crane.
† b. In every-day language or manner, easily.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 69. Out of these two places, which I thinke I haue bothe brefely and familiarly and truely expounded.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 266. More … perspicuously … and familiarly … expressed by them.
c. 1660. J. Harrington Valerius & Publ., To Rdr. (1700), 475. There is nothing … I so much desire as to be familiarly understood.
4. Without ceremony, in a free and easy manner, unceremoniously.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. v. 42. He … wyth þame spak famylyarly.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 810. [The Duke] exhorted him familierly … to say whatsoever he thought.
1678. Dryden, Limberham, V. i. We’ll banish all Pomp and Ceremony, and live familiarly together.
1712. Tickell, Spect., No. 410, 20 June, ¶ 1. She saluted him very familiarly by his Name.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I., Valentine’s Day. Our familiarly pious ancestors.
1875. T. W. Higginson, U. S. Hist., viii. 56. Called familiarly by the name of ‘Pilgrims.’
