adv. [f. STRANGE a. + -LY2.]
† 1. In a foreign or outlandish manner. rare–0.
1483. Cath. Angl., 367/2. Strawngely, extranee, barbare, peregrine.
† 2. In an unfriendly or unfavorable manner; with cold or distant bearing. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 955. And straungely she spak and seyde þus.
1461. Paston Lett., II. 59. I have spoken with hem of that matre … and I have found the[m] too straunchely disposed.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. V., 23 b. When the protector had harde the proposicion, he loked very strangely therat.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 278 b. He answered somwhat straungly [L. paulo respondet alienius].
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xlix. 5. When thou shalt strangely passe, And scarcely greete me with that sunne thine eye. Ibid., cx. 6. I haue lookt on truth Asconce and strangely.
a. 1707. S. Patrick, Autobiogr. (1839), 25. Look not strangely upon him because he differs from thee in some opinions.
† 3. In a way that is unusual or exceptional; in an unusual sense. Obs. (Merged in 5.)
1533. More, Confut. Barnes, Wks. 807/1. Heretikes, whiche bee straungers from the housholde of Christes catholike church, and whiche doe strangely rehearse and strangely declare Christes catholyke scrypture, agaynste the knowen catholike doctrine.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., III. (1586), 122 b. If you take it not so, me thinkes … you take it too strangelie, and too obscurelie.
† 4. In an uncommon or exceptional degree; very greatly, extremely. Obs. (Merged in 5.)
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. iii. (Skeat), l. 59. The storm so straungely … gan … us assayle.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 7. Thou Hast strangely stood the test.
1618. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1906), 32. Hee was straungely importunate with me to give him leave to goe.
1665. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 243. The Sicknesse is strangely increased.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 395. Camomil,… it strangely cureth Agues.
1705. Hearne, Duct. Hist. (ed. 2), I. 155. Civil Prudence … sparkles strangely in his Institution of Cyrus.
1707. Prior, Sat. Poets, 109. How fine your Plot, how exquisite each Scene! And play’d at Court, would strangely please the Queen.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 122. The Heat of the Sun bak’d them strangely hard.
5. In a manner so unusual or exceptional as to excite wonder or astonishment; surprisingly, unaccountably, oddly.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, 64. A gentill woman … come to a fest so straungely atyred and queintly arraied … that all that sawe her come ranne towardes her to wonder.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. ii. 18. By strange occasion she did him behold, And much more strangely gan to loue his sight.
1599. Dallam, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.), 85. The which myls be verrie straingly made.
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. iii. 40. They vanish’d strangely.
a. 1652. Brome, Queenes Exch., V. i. Osr. Is Offa mad? Keep. O quite besides himself, and talks the strangeliest Of his fathers murder.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 306, ¶ 8. The Vagaries of Fancy which so strangely misled you.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, V. i. This fellow runs strangely in my head.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 13. Men who had never before had a scruple had on a sudden become strangely scrupulous.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iii. § 6. 144. Strangely as the two men differed from each other, their aim was the same.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, I. ii. 16. Mankind show themselves strangely forgetful of their chiefest benefactors.
6. quasi-Comb. (The adv. qualifying a ppl. adj. or adj.; often hyphened when the use is attributive.)
1598. Chapman, Hero & Leander, III. 183. Most strangely-intellectuall fire.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. iii. 150. Strangely visited people All swolne and Vlcerous.
1633. Ford, Love’s Sacrif., IV. H 2 b. Some strangely-shap’d man-beast.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, II. clxxv. His strangely-potent Wand’s petard.
1777. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 172. So strangely-timed a piece of adulation.
1854. Helps, Comp. Solit., xiii. 273. This mass of strangely-mingled materials.
