▪ I. deathly, a.
(ˈdɛθlɪ)
Forms: 1–2 déaþl{iacu}c, 2 deaðlich, deþlich, 6 deathlie, -lye, 6– deathly.
[OE. déaþl{iacu}c = OHG. todlîh: f. death n. + -ly1; cf. deadly.]
† 1. Subject to death, mortal. Obs.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 21 Bið þonne undeaþlic, þeah he ær deaþlic wære. a 1175 Cott. Hom. 221 Þu wurst deaðlic, ȝef þu þes trowes westm ȝéétst. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 9 Mid ure deaðliche liue. |
2. Causing death, deadly.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 75 Deþliche atter. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. 2 Cor. ii. (R.), Vnholsome and deathlye to such as refuse it. 1555 Cohabitacyon of Faithfull 19 The byting of deathlie serpentes. 1568 T. Howell Newe Sonnets (1879) 119 When deathly seas compels weake hart to quaile. 1862 Trollope N. Amer. I. 263 That deathly flow of hot air coming up..from the neighbouring infernal regions. 1885 W. de G. Birch Life K. Harold v. 135 His wounds, many and deathly. |
3. Of the nature of or resembling death, deathlike; gloomy, pale, etc. as death.
| 1568 T. Howell Arb. Amitie (1879) 69 The deathly day in dole I passe. 1852 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 204 She, poor thing, looking deathly. 1865–8 F. Parkman France & Eng. in Amer. (1880) 57 A deathly stillness. |
4. Of or pertaining to death. poetical.
| 1850 Mrs. Browning Soul's Trav. 176 That deathly odour which the clay Leaves on its deathlessness alway. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 65 As soul is quenchless by the deathly mists. |
▪ II. ˈdeathly, adv.
In 2 deaðliche.
[See prec. and -ly2. Cf. deadly adv. 1, 3, 4.]
† 1. In a way causing or tending to death. Obs.
| a 1240 Lofsong in Cott. Hom. 211 Herþurh ich deie þet spec er of swuche þinge and deaðliche sunegi. |
2. To a degree resembling death.
| 1884 C. F. Woolson in Harper's Mag. Jan. 197/1 It was ‘deathly cold’ in these ‘stony lanes’. |