adv. [f. FOUL a. + -LY2; in OE. fúllíce.] In a foul manner.
1. Fetidly, noisomely, filthily, disgustingly.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6352 (Cott.).
| Þe water was al suete alson, | |
| Þe water þat sua fuli stanc. |
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxi. 96. It es better þai be eten with fewles, whilk er aungelles of Godd, þan foully to be eten in þe erthe with wormes.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 77.
| Though she were sweete, nowe fowly doth she stinke, | |
| A myrrour good for all that on her thinke. |
1642. Quarles, Feast for W., IX. ix. 36.
| Such puppet-plaies, to heaven are strange and quaint, | |
| Their service is unsweet, and foully taint, | |
| Their words fall fruitlesse from their idle braine. |
fig. 1697. J. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. iv. (1715), 48. Whilst forming what they call Rules of Probability from the Manners of their own Times, there is scarce any Passage in all the Volumes of ancient Poetry, which does not, on some Score or other, foully disgust their curious and distinguishing Palates.
2. Hideously; with gross disfigurement.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. iii. 8. Fowlyly hym demenbryd þai.
c. 1450. Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 7809.
| It was sa fouly sa defuyled, | |
| And nere of all his clething spuyled. |
1566. Drant, Horace’s Sat., I. iii.
| For, if with vs be conuersaunte sum humble. lowly soule, | |
| We calle him goose, and disarde doulte, and fowlye fatted nowle. |
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1035/1. Manie other houses in other parts of the citie, were burned, and fowlie defaced with fire.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, Ld. Chandos, 65. Fairest truth I fouliest masked.
1632. Sanderson, 12 Serm., 466. That part of Gods image in man, which was of naturall and not of supernaturall grace, might be, and was foulely defaced with sinne.
1728. Swift, Answer, 261.
| Must lose the honour you have gain’d, | |
| Your numerous virtues foully stain’d. |
3. Abominably, disgracefully, shamefully; with revolting wickedness, cruelty, or treachery.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 11. Meidenhad is te blosme þat beo ha eanes fulliche forcoruen, ne spruteð ha neauer eft.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 16461 (Trin.).
| Iudas stood among þo folk: | |
| & bihelde & seȝe | |
| How foulely þei wiþ him dalt. |
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 127.
| Now, breke hert, y the praye! thys cord lyeth so rulye, | |
| So betyn, so woundyd, Entretyd so fuly. |
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1233/2. His goods by the commons fowlie despoiled and caried awaie from the Blacke friers.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 72.
| Al trust fowlye breaking, thee poore Polydorus is headlesse | |
| Through wycked murther, thee gould thee traytor vp hurdeth. |
1605. Camden, Rem., 212. Forsooth, yee doe fowly to smite a King annoynted.
1666. Bunyan, Grace Abound., ¶ 159. I had not, as to the circumstances, transgressed so foully as he.
1714. Gay, What d’ye call it?, II. iii.
| O brother, brother! Filbert still is true; | |
| I foully wrong’d him—do, forgive me, do. |
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 459. From mine own earldom foully ousted me.
1880. Miss Braddon, Just as I am, iii. In the prime and heyday of life, when his son Morton was just ten years old, he was foully murdered one October evening in the lane leading to Austhorpe, as he rode home from the hunt.
b. Impurely, obscenely.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., xxviii. (1889), 106. Wel oft soðlice ȝyfernyss & ȝenihtsumnyss wines fullice [turpiter] on galnysse tolætt.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. ii. 174.
| Dost thou desire her fowly, for those things | |
| That make her good? |
1864. Neale, Seaton. Poems, 265.
| Still | |
| Madlier the revel, foullier went the jest. |
4. With gross contumely, insultingly. Now only with strong mixture of sense 3, with reference to slander or coarse language.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxi. 13. I am slane of þaim as fouly as watere is helt.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 24085 (Fairf.). Fouli þai on him spitte.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 96. Thenne gan faith foully · þe false Iewes to despisen.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 129/1. Who can reckon vp all the things wherein Gods name is fowly abused.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 154.
| For whose death, we in the worlds wide mouth | |
| Liue scandaliz’d, and fouly spoken of. |
a. 1627. Hayward, Edw. VI. (1630), 96. The other two [letters] did fully and fowly set forth his obstinacie, his auarice his ambition, his rash engagements into warres, [etc.].
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xxx. (1647), 163. The Pope hearing thereof, belibelled him more fouly than ever before, because like an undutifull sonne he departed without his Fathers blessing, being not absolved and reconciled to his Mother the Church.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 234. The gentlemen who had been so foully slandered might be assured that she placed entire reliance on them.
† 5. Badly, grievously. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 42. Bot ever was Eilred fouly begiled.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VI. 156.
| Quha vist euir men sa fouly fall | |
| As vs, gif that we thusgat leif? |
1539. Tonstall, Serm. Palm Sund. (1823), 81. Surely they be fowelye deceyued, for othes be ordeyned where nede is that trewthe shall not perysshe.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 360. While he addicted himself only unto the bare and naked letter of holy Scripture, he erred fouly in the sense and mystical understanding thereof.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1621), 1217. Hee fell sicke of the small poxe, wherewith hee hauing a grosse and full boide, was so foulely tormented for the space of foureteene dayes, that oftentimes fainting, it was generally thought he would thereof haue died.
1655. Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, II. v. § 1. Pope Formosus was foully offended hereat.
[1881. R. Buchanan, God and Man, II. vi. Richard … finally stormed and wept so like an innocent man foully taxed and troubled, that the captain was completely thrown upon his beam-ends.]
