[f. STILL a. + -LY1.
In the modern sense 2 the word may have been suggested by STILLY adv. It may, however, be a distinct word, f. STILL a. or STILL sb.2 + -Y. Cf. PALY a.1]
† 1. Secret. (Frequent in Layamon.) Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 2374. [He] mid stilliche ginne brohte Æstrild þer inne. Ibid., 17776. Forð wende þe swike … & spec wið his monnen mid stilleliche rune.
2. Characterized by stillness. Chiefly poet.
1776. Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, 386. Not a blast may shake Its fluttering pinions o’er the stilly lake.
1795. Coleridge, Æolian Harp, 11. The stilly murmur of the distant Sea Tells us of silence.
1811. Shelley, St. Irvyne, iii. Pr. Wks. 1888, I. 153. The wind sighed moaningly along the stilly colonnades.
1815. Moore, Nat. Airs. Oft, in the stilly night, Ere Slumber’s chain has bound me.
1816. Brackenridge, Jrnl., 13. Several deer … seemed to move across this stilly scene, like the shadows of the phantasmagoria.
1830. Tennyson, Recoll. Arab. Nts., 103. Many a shadow-chequer’d lawn Full of the city’s stilly sound.
1847. Lever, O’Malley, lxxix. How the pale and stilly figure counts over the hours.
1865. W. G. Palgrave, Arabia, I. 305. This dry and stilly region.
1889. Hissey, Tour in Phaeton, 59. A stilly sheet of water.
