adv. [f. as prec. + -LY2.] In a tropical manner.
1. In the way of a trope; metaphorically, figuratively.
1564. J. Rastell, Confut. Jewell’s Serm., 140. The body of Christ is, onlye figuratiuelye,… tropicallie, imaginatiuelie, in the Sacrament.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 247. King. What do you call the Play? Ham. The Mouse-trap: Marry how? Tropically.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. iii. 111. Spanish Mares, whose swiftnesse [is] tropically expressed from their generation by the wind.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., Gal. v. 24. The work of mortification (called here tropically, a crucifixion).
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., V. ix. (1849), 302. It is tropically observed by honest old Socrates, that heaven infuses into some men … a portion of intellectual gold.
1879. R. T. Smith, St. Basil, 91. There are multitudes of expressions applied in Scripture to God, which we agree are to be tropically taken.
2. In a way characteristic of the tropics; with tropical heat, luxuriance, or violence.
1852. Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., xvii. (1885), 173. The sunshine lay tropically there.
1886. Pall Mall G., 10 June, 9/1. The rain … continues, although not quite so tropically.
1896. Academy, 11 July, 27/1. Hume’s tropically coloured account of what … he called ‘the Irish rebellion.’
