[f. STRAIGHT a. + -LY2.]
1. In a straight manner; in a straight line; directly.
1395. Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 46. Siche lawis ben directli, other straightli, or openli, contrarie to the truthe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. vi. (Bodl. MS.). He renneþ scharpelich & swiftelich and straiȝteliche as it were.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 11640. My glovys streythly on to sette.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., II. i. But tell me … What stature wields he, and what personage? Mena. Of stature tall, and straightly fashioned.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., iii. Wks. 1687, I. 27. God’s word … is a lamp unto our feet, teaching us to walk streightly and surely, without erring or stumbling.
1804–6. Syd. Smith, Mor. Philos. (1850), 231. Firmness and constancy of purpose, that withstands all solicitation, and, in spite of all danger, goes on straightly to its object, is very often sublime.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, v. (1880), 150. Let him deliver the fly straightly and well.
1867. C. J. Smith, Syn. & Antonyms, 24. To allude is to make such a reference to a subject as does not straightly refer to, but, as it were, plays about it.
2. Straightway, immediately. poet. rare.
1830. Tennyson, Sonn., ‘Could I outwear.’ Could I thus hope my lost delights renewing, I straightly would commend the tears to creep From my charged lids.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par., I. (1870), 252. Make no tarrying, But straightly set thyself to do this thing.
