1. Fitly, properly, suitably, aptly; neatly, elegantly.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 585. He þat fetly in face fettled alle eres.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 135.
| And feetly with helpe sche can consent | |
| To set a cokewolde on the hye benche. |
c. 1420. Palladius on Husb., VIII. 142. Clense it feetly wel.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 55. Gellius applyeth this prouerbe very featlye to these grosse and rude men.
1591. Florio, Second Fruites, 63. You will haue it [wine] smelling sweetelie, coloured featly, and smacking neately.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall, iii. The giuing vp of the godlies ghost may featlie be compared to three things.
1671. Eachard, Observ. Answ. Cont. Clergy, 62. We are bluntly told … not neatly and featly.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. viii. (1858), 33. Frills and fringes, with gay variety of colour, featly appended, and ever in the right place, are not wanting.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss. ‘It was all done varry feitly,’ very appropriately.
† b. Exactly, precisely. Obs.
a. 1450. Bk. St. Albans, Fishing (1883), 8. Bynd hem to gydur fetely so þat þe cropp may justly entur alle in to þe seyd hote.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. Gal. iv. 29. In this also the allegorie featly agreeth, that bothe posterities sauer of theyr beginners.
1674. N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 74. A curious frame of well-ranged bulks so featly set together by a boundless cunning.
2. Cleverly, deftly, skilfully.
1436. Political Poems (Rolls), II. 172.
| And thynges wyth whiche they fetely blere oure eye, | |
| Wyth thynges not enduryng that we bye. |
1533. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 488/2. He … feately conuayed himself out of the frying panne, fayre into the fyre.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., vi. (1623), O iij. There neuer want some plants or other, containing these sweets: which the Bees featly draw from them, without any hurt to the fruit.
1767. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., Feitly, dexterously.
c. 1800. K. White, Christiad, xvi.
| Then thus in homely guise I featly framed | |
| My lowly speech. |
1888. G. H. Radford, Occasional Verses, Retreat.
| Let the gentle angler stand | |
| Knee-deep in water, rod in hand, | |
| And featly cast his specious fly | |
| While trout and time are fleeting by. |
b. With reference to movements, esp. dancing: With graceful agility, nimbly.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1757.
| Þe lady luffych com laȝande swete, | |
| Fell ouer his fayre face, & fetly hym kyssed. |
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 176. Pol. She dances featly.
1635. Brome, Sparagus Garden, III. ix. How feately she holds up the neb to him!
1704. Pope, Jan & May, 620.
| So featly tripp’d the lightfoot ladies round, | |
| The knights so nimbly o’er the green swarth bound. |
1806. J. Grahame, Birds Scot., 9.
| Featly athwart the ridge she runs, now seen, | |
| Now in furrow hid; then, screaming, springs. |
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxxiii.
| Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds, | |
| And lowly bending to the lists advance; | |
| Rich are their scarfs, their chargers featly prance. |
1835. Willis, Pencillings (1836), I. xxx. 215. His little Viennese wife, though she spoke no Christian language, danced as featly as a fairy.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ingol. Penance, II.
| With signs of grief and sounds of woe, | |
| Featly he kisseth his Holiness’ toe. |
1870. Lowell, Stud. Wind., 181. He contrives to make even the Sapphic so, which when we read it in Latin moves featly to our modern accentuation.
† 3. Oddly, strangely. (Cf. FEAT a 5.) Obs.
1674. N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 29. If my soul does not thus featly stick out of my body, then it withdrew at the off-cut, and so my soul is not the same that ’twas before, but less.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Featly, oddly, after an unusual or uncouth manner.
B. adj. Graceful. Of a dress: Neat, well-fitting.
1801. Moore, Ring, iii. Some the featly dance amused.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall (1845), 269. The coy, smiling, simple nun, with her gray eyes, her small red mouth and fair forehead, her dainty person clad in featly cloak, and ‘’ypinched wimple,’ her coral beads about her arm, her golden brooch with a love-motto, and her pretty oath ‘by Saint Eloy.’
Hence Featliness, featly quality; gracefulness.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., IV. vi. The admirable ‘featliness’ of the Count de la Roche … was rivalled only by the more majestic grace of Edward.
