Jollily

adv. Forms: see JOLLY a.; also 4 ioliflich, iolely. [f. JOLLY a. + -LY².] In a jolly manner.

  1.  Cheerfully, gaily, merrily, jovially; † spiritedly, gallantly, boldly, insolently (obs.).

13[?].  K. Alis., 4753 (4737). Who þat haþ trewe amye Ioliflich he may hym in here afyȝe.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 99. Redi … to werre jolily aȝenst cristene men.

c. 1420.  Anturs of Arth., xxxix. So iolyly thes gentille iustede one were.

1547.  Hooper, Answ. Gardiner’s Bk., X. iv. Lord, I knew thy trewthe, and Iolyly pratyd of the same.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 36 b. Wherein you triumph so Iollylye.

1670.  Milton, Hist. Eng., VI. Wks. (1847), 560/1. Sitting jollily at dinner.

1788.  Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 200. Having done a good day’s work, they spent the evening jollily.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., ix. Baldwin was silent, thinking and smiling jollily.

  † 2.  Amorously; licentiously. Obs.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 7031. Prelat lyuyng iolily Or prest that halt his quene hym by.

  † 3.  Finely, handsomely, gaily. Obs.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, IX. 201. Men arayit Iolely.

1426.  Audelay, Poems, 16. He is a gentylmon and jolyle arayd.

a. 1640.  Peacham, in Ellis, Spec. Eng. Poets, II. (R.). Their heads full jollily they dight.

  4.  Excellently, splendidly; finely; delightfully. Now slang or colloq.

c. 1563.  Jack Jugler, in 4 Old Plays (1848), 34. You wold pommile him ioylile a-bout the pate.

1668.  H. More, Div. Dial., II. ix. (1713), 113. You come of jollily, methinks,… apologizing thus in the general.

a. 1822.  Shelley, trans. Faust, II. 23. I see one yonder burning jollily.

1878.  Mary C. Jackson, Chaperon’s Cares, II. ix. 117. When one meets nice people and gets on jollily with them.