adv. [f. prec. + -LY1.] In a flagitious manner; atrociously, villainously.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl., O. T. (1622), VI. XVI. iv. 79. If Amasa were now in an act of loyalty, justly (on Gods part) payd for the arerages of his late rebellion, yet that it should be done by thy hand, then, and thus, it was flagitiously cruell.
1679. J. Goodman, Penit. Pardoned, III. vi. (1713), 391. Such men as have formerly lived flagitiously and wickedly, and are at last brought over effectually to hearty piety and devotion, prove commonly very eminent and remarkable for several vertues, to such a degree as is scarcely attainable or imitable by any others.
1845. Ld. Campbell, Chancellors (1857), V. cxvii. 346. Some of the scenes between Hernando and Louisa, which Swift thought displayed Mrs. Manley’s ‘good sense and invention,’ are most flagitiously indecent.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 562. It had been determined not to bring him to trial for his recent offence, but to put him to death under the sentence pronounced against him several years before, a sentence so flagitiously unjust that the most servile and obdurate lawyers of that bad age could not speak of it without shame.
