Strongly

adv. Forms: see STRONG a. and -LY². [OE. stranglíce, f. stranglĭc adj., strong, robust, severe, f. strang STRONG a.: see -LY¹, -LY².

  Formerly compared stronglier, -est (OE. stranglicor, -ost, early ME. strangluker, -laker, -est); now with more, most.)

  1.  In a strong manner.

  a.  Powerfully; with strong effect; forcibly.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, On O. T. (Gr.), 7/7. Dauid … stranglice rixode and bewerode þæt folc wið ða hæðenan leoda.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 218. Sum ancre is þet weneð þet heo schule beon stronglukest iuonded iðe uormeste tweolf moneð þer heo bigon ancre lif, & iðen oðer tweolf þerefter.

1583.  Babington, Commandm., ii. (1590), 74. Our natures are verie prone to the breach hereof, which by a negatiue is stronglier beate downe than by an affirmatiue.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., V. i. 17. His teares runs downe his beard…: your charm so strongly works ’em That if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender.

1642.  D. Rogers, Naaman, 408. Whether thy lusts can draw thee stronglier then he.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 239. The districts most strongly marked with Breton characteristics.

  b.  So as to resist attack or displacement, firmly, solidly, securely.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lviii. 443. To ðon ðæt he swa micle stranglicor [L. solidius] arise swa he hefiʓlicor afeoll.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 9. Heo weren strongliche ibunden.

1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., 71. To the end that what I haue shewed you … may the more stronglie sticke to your memorie, here is [etc.].

1605.  Shaks., Macb., V. ii. 12. Great Dunsinane he strongly Fortifies.

1668.  Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. iv. 93. It hath its … outer [surface] more rough that it might be stronglyer fastned.

1678.  Hobbes, Decam., viii. 97. Those, whose smallest parts, naturally, without the force of Fire do strongliest cohere, are generally the heaviest.

1855.  Prescott, Philip II., I. I. iii. 42. By this triumph over her enemies, Mary was seated more strongly than ever on the throne.

1856.  W. Irving, Life Washington, xcvi. III. 771. The American and British armies, strongly posted,… remained four days grimly regarding each other.

  c.  Violently, vehemently.

a. 900.  O. E. Martyrol., 5 May, 76. He sæde þæt æʓhwelce ʓeare … þær to come þæs strongestan windes yste, ond þæt se swa stronglice hrure on þa circan, þæt [etc.].

a. 1122.  O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an 1016. Ða ʓewende se here sona to Lundene & þa burh uton besæton, & hire stranglice wið feaht.

a. 1300.  Havelok, 135. Quanne he hauede þis pleinte maked, Þer after stronglike [he] quaked.

1340.  Ayenb., 157. Þe dyeuel yziȝþ … þe stat of þe manne … and to huet vice he ys mest bouȝinde … and of þo half him asayleþ stranglakest.

1473.  Warkw., Chron. (Camden), 6. Ther thei faughthe strongly togedere.

1610.  Fletcher, Faithf. Sheph., II. ii. D 2. But hether am I come … To seeke you out, of whose great good the Aire Is full, and strongly labors.

1642–7.  H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. III. liii. Mid part is strongliest rouz’d, the Poles do sleep in rest.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 161. Bear-baiting … was the abomination which most strongly stirred the wrath of the austere sectaries.

  d.  Boldly, bravely, with fortitude.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 15. & eauer se þu strongluker stondest aȝain him, se he o tene & o grome wodeluker weorreð.

1382.  Wyclif, Judg. xx. 41. The whiche beforehond feyneden fliȝt, turnede the face strongly withstoden.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Esdras x. 15. Loke what happeneth vnto y^e, beare it strongly [Vulg. fortiter fer].

  † e.  With a strong military force. Obs.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 347. The archb. of Cant. … gaue him aduertisement thereof, willing him more stronglier to go or else not to venter.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xxxi. (1592), 496. The stronglier he had come, the lesse had beene his victorie.

1596.  Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 664/2. The which I knowe doe so stronglie commaund all the passages that waie as that none can passe from Ulster into Connaught, without their leave.

  † f.  With strength of reason. Obs.

1395.  Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 14. It sueth moche strongliere, that siche dymes and offringis shulen be withdrawe for these grevousere synnis.

1596.  Bacon, Maxims Com. Law, i. (1630), 2. The cause of deprivation, and more strongly of a resignation, moved from the partie himselfe.

  g.  Energetically, resolutely; emphatically.

1533.  Frith, Mirr. Baptism, B viij. Now wil I endeuour my self to … vtterly putte out the seconde erroure,… and that is of them whiche so stronglye steke into the weke ceremonyes.

1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 309. Goe we Lords to put in practice that, Which each to other hath so strongly sworne.

1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. xv. 87. Whoever is accused strongly is never thought intirely innocent.

1680.  Baxter, Cath. Commun. (1684), 35. And what man living hath written stronglier against it, than Dr. Isaac Barrow.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 157. His father had given a reluctant assent to a bill, strongly supported by Falkland.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xxxiii. Most of whom would not scruple—as Mr. Brown strongly put it—to steal a copper out of a blind beggar’s hat.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 183/2. We therefore strongly urge the student to work from the examples.

  † h.  In various obsolete uses: (To sleep) soundly, (to eat) heartily; (to gaze, etc.) intently; (to sound) loudly. Obs.

c. 1450.  Merlin, xx. 323. And thei slepte strongeliche in the hoste ffor the tyme that relented.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, VI. xi. 201. Soo whan sir kay was vnarmed he asked after mete; soo there was mete sette hym, and he ete strongly.

1485.  Caxton, Paris & V., 87. Vyenne byhelde the rynge so strongely.

1600.  Surflet, Country Farm, II. lxv. 409. By howe much you sound the stronglier, by so much they [sc. bees] mount the higher into the aire.

1675–7.  Warwick, Mem. Chas. I. (1701), 98. The eyes of the Nobility and Gentry being stronglyer fixt upon the Church-lands.

  2.  In a strong degree; with strength or intensity of the condition or quality predicated.

  a.  Qualifying a verb expressing a state or condition, emotion, belief, resemblance or difference.

c. 1400.  Brut, 294. Wherfore þe King, whan he herde of þis tydinge, he was stronglyche meued, and þerwiþ an angred.

c. 1450.  Merlin, i. 13. When the gode man herde this he merveyled strongeleche.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., II. vii. (1562), 108 b. The more that they hold back themselues, so much y^e stronglier within they are kindled.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 113. The Theeues are scattred, and possest with fear so strongly, that they dare not meet each other.

1650.  Baxter, Saints’ R., II. iii. § 1 (1653), 207. The stronger any mans Reason is, the stronglier is he perswaded that God is true.

1802.  Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T., Forester, xii. He was so strongly charmed by the sight of a watch-chain and seals, that [etc.].

1818.  Accum, Chem. Tests, 286. Heat the mixture strongly over a lamp, till a dry red mass is obtained.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 659. It was strongly suspected that he had been in constant communication with the government.

1858.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., I. iii. (1872), I. 28. In his Portraits as Prince-Royal, he strongly resembles her.

  b.  Qualifying an adj.

1491.  Caxton, Vitas Patr., II. 278 b/2. A broder febled by sekenes sayd … that he was strongly seke [Fr. q’il estoit fort malade].

1798.  Ferriar, Engl. Historians, 244. Superstition is strongly imitative.

1861.  J. Tulloch, Engl. Purit., ii. 288. As we read it,… the ardour of local Puritanism becomes strongly intelligible.

1879.  Geikie, Phys. Geog., iii. 115–6. Sea-water is always strongly salt to the taste.

  3.  Comb. With ppl. adjs., as strongly-bound, -drawing, -made, -marked, -scented, -shod, -worded; also occas. with adjs. in -ED², forming combs. used as equivalent to parasynthetic formations on STRONG a., as † strongly-limbed, † necked, † opinioned.

1890.  Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXVI. 155/2. The *strongly-bound and neatly got-up volumes of the Geological Survey of the United States.

1611.  Cotgr., Rubrificatif,… a plaister of … *strongly-drawing simples.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handicr., 315. Wise, active, valiant, *strongly-limb’d, and healthy.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xlvi. He is tall,… and a *strongly made man.

1820.  Scott, Monast., xix. Traits which were rather *strongly marked than beautiful.

1892.  Rev. of Reviews, April, 332/2. Both were men of strongly-marked individuality.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 88. The Mother Cow must wear a low’ring Look, Sour-headed, *strongly-neck’d, to bear the Yoke.

1615.  T. Adams, Blacke Devill, 38. This is Satans first presumption; a *strongly-opinion’d trust in his owne strength.

1879.  Lubbock, Sci. Lect., ii. 64. The larva of Papilio machaon is … provided with *strongly-scented tentacles.

1831.  Scott, Ct. Robt., ii. A … *strongly-shod arrow.

1883.  Manch. Exam., 30 Nov., 5/1. At a meeting held in the evening a *strongly-worded letter on the subject was read from Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P.