merrily, adv.
(ˈmɛrɪlɪ)
Forms: see merry a. and -ly2; also 4–6 merely, 4–7 merily, 5 merelly, 6 merrellie, -ely, merelie, -ye, 6– merrily.
[f. merry a. + -ly2.]
1. In early use: Pleasantly, agreeably, cheerfully, happily. In modern use: With exuberant gaiety, joyously, mirthfully, hilariously.
| 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2295 Þen muryly efte con he mele, þe mon in þe grene. c 1386 Chaucer Manciple's T. 34 No nyghtyngale Ne koude..Syngen so wonder myrily and weel. a 1400–50 Alexander 3862 Þe mone ouir þe montayns meryly it schynes. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xvi. 58 (Harl. MS.) The brid, þat sang so murely in the top of the tre, is þi conscience. 1552 in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847) 247 That I may.. even in the very pangs of death, cry boldly and merrily unto thee. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius x. 208 b, When he had spoken those wordes, he went merelye [orig. alacriter] into the fire. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. x. 42 Full merrily the humble Bee doth sing. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. 126, I see the fire of Heresie..breaks most forth there, where they drink merriliest. 17.. in Scott Redgauntlet ch. iv, Merrily danced the Quaker's wife, And merrily danced the Quaker. 1799 Wordsw. Fountain 22 No check, no stay, this Streamlet fears; How merrily it goes! 1848 Dickens Dombey iv, ‘Oh, very well, Uncle’, said the boy, merrily. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 462, [I] would not go out of life less merrily than the swans. |
† 2. Jocularly, facetiously, wittily, in jest.
Obs.| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 336 Iuuenal seith of pouerte myrily The poure man [etc.]. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. V 21 This man merely..saied to his awne sonne that he would make him inheritor of y⊇ croune meaning his awne house. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 16 Philip the French king beyng merely disposed, sayde that william lay in Childebed, and norrisshed his fat belly. a 1626 Bacon New Atl. 14 We knew he spake it but merrily. 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 431 Treves..is..of no great Beauty of it self..and the Air generally so clouded..that it is by some called merrily Cloaca Planetarum. |
| Comb. 1767 S. Paterson Another Trav. I. 129 The fleers of some of my merrily-disposed readers. |
3. With alacrity; hence, with reference to inanimate things, briskly.
| 1530 Palsgr. 547/1 These beestes fede meryly towardes nyght. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton v. (1840) 80 We went merrily up the river with the flood. 1899 Times 25 Oct. 5/3 The Mauser bullets rattled merrily, but impotently, on the armour [of a train]. 1912 G. B. Shaw John Bull's Other Island Pref. p. vi/2 He chalks up No Surrender merrily, and puts up one of the famous fights of history. 1926 W. R. Inge Lay Thoughts iii. i. 185 The process [sc. increase of population] went on merrily at first because the new countries produced far more food than they needed for themselves. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake iii. 615 On the top of the longcar, as merrily we rolled along, we think of him looking at us yet. 1966 Listener 17 Feb. 247/1 Frontier wars..continue as merrily in our own nuclear age as ever they did before 1914. 1972 R. Adams Watership Down xxxiii. 261 Why not a water-rabbit? I shall float merrily along—. 1974 Observer 3 Mar. 34/3 McKenzie merrily complained that the Battleground machine wasn't telling him anything. |