a. [f. SPLENDID a. + -LY2.] In a splendid manner.
1. With much grandeur or display; sumptuously, grandly, gorgeously: a. In respect of living, state or ceremony, etc.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xlii. 294. The Bishops of those times … lived splendidly.
1682. Wood, Life, 22 Jan. The old lady Sanderson … was buried verie splendidly in Westminster Abbey Church.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, III. 238. How he lives and eats; How largely gives; how splendidly, he treats.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3919/2. His Grace was splendidly treated by the Corporation in the Town Hall.
1839. Thirlwall, Hist. Greece, VI. 185. The burial of the dead … was splendidly solemnised.
1841. Thackeray, Drum, I. xxviii. Dukes … were splendidly served at her feasts.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, II. vii. (1880), II. 68. The Rucellai … kept a great table and lived splendidly.
b. In respect of appearance, adornment, etc.
1675. Ogilby, Britannia, Introd. E. The old or Royal Exchange … more splendidly Re-built by the City and Company of Mercers.
1772–84. Cook’s Voy., III. 220. All the women appeared very splendidly dressed, after the Kamtschadale fashion.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xiii. The apartments … were far more splendidly furnished than any which Quentin had yet seen in the royal palace.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 374. A plumage that is most splendidly brilliant.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, vii. They were splendidly attired in velvet, silk and furs.
2. In a manner or style compelling admiration; magnificently, gloriously.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. iii. I. 19. These have been the enquiries that have splendidly employed many … philosophers.
1859. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. I. To Rdr. Not prone in the first instance to war, though splendidly tenacious in battle when it does come.
1880. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 132. To break conventional laws, and be splendidly irrational.
3. Excellently, finely.
1883. G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 393/1. We were steaming along splendidly now.
1912. Throne, 7 Aug., 222/1. A set of chambers … which he said would suit us splendidly.
4. Comb., as splendidly bound, etc.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XI. liii. (1702), 167. Six yellow springs … Disgorge their splendidly-contagious flood.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiography (1859), 215. With splendidly-bound ‘Heures’ and magnificent reticules.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, v. (ed. 3), 71. The gay throng of splendidly-uniformed military and naval officers.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 222. Well mounted … on splendidly-conditioned animals.
