▪ I. cleanly, a.
(ˈklɛnlɪ)
Forms: 1 clǽnl{iacu}c, 4 clenlich, clanli, 5–7 clenly, -lie, 6 clene-, cleanely, (clendly), 5– cleanly.
[OE. clǽnl{iacu}c, f. clǽne, clean + l{iacu}c body: lit. ‘clean-bodied’, having cleanness as a personal characteristic. See -ly1. It appears to have been first used of moral or spiritual purity, and thence extended to certain senses of clean, but its main sense still refers to habit and tendency rather than to actual state: a cleanly person may be for the moment dirty, but will as soon as possible make himself clean.]
† 1. Morally or spiritually clean; pure; innocent. Obs.
| c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxi, Sin hiᵹ scipas ᵹesamnaþ mid clænlicre lufe. a 1000 Boeth. Metr. xi. 183 Clænlice lufe. c 1340 Cursor M. 26354 (Fairf.) Of shrift clanli. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. iv, in Ashm. (1652) 47 The honds of a cleanly Clerke. 1641 Milton Animadv. vi. Wks. (1847) 72/2 Your priest..that thinks himself the purer, or the cleanlier in his office for his new-washed surplice. a 1680 Glanvill (J.), Human nature meets few more sweetly relishing and cleanly joys, than those that derive from successful trials. 1683 Penn. Archives I. 73 A man of so sober, so cleanly, and so approved a Behaviour. |
† 2. Clean: as clothes, or the like. (Possibly the sense may sometimes have been clean-looking.)
| 1340 Ayenb. 216 He zayþ þet hi ssolle habbe clenliche cloþinge. c 1460 Launfal 201 Me fawtede..Clenly brech and scherte. 1488 Will Sir E. Shea (Somerset Ho.), A clenly dore of Iron for to open and shette. 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Man. Y 6 Although that this superfluyte be no[t] clendly, yet, etc. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 40 By her cleanly garment catching hold. |
3. Of persons (or beasts): Addicted to cleanness, habitually clean; careful to avoid filth.
| c 1500 Doctr. Gd. Servauntes xxvii. in Poet. Tracts (1842) 5 Seruauntes ought..For to be clenly of their bodyes. a 1700 Dryden (J.), Some plain but cleanly country maid. a 1719 Addison (J.) An ant is a very cleanly insect. 1748 Anson Voy. ii. ii. 135 It was imagined, that by living apart, they would be much cleanlier. 1885 C. Monkhouse in Mag. Art Sept. 471/1 [Dutch tiles] were found convenient by a proverbially cleanly people. |
b. Also of personal belongings: Habitually kept clean.
| 1653 Walton Angler 47 An honest cleanly Alehouse that I know right well. Ibid. 49 A cleanly room, Lavender in the windowes. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 196 Displays her cleanly platter on the board. |
4. Conducing to or promoting cleanness.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad xxii. 135 In times of cleanly peace. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. i. i. (1651) 3 A cleanly diet. c 1720 Prior Poems (J.), In our fantastick climes, the fair With cleanly powder dry their hair. 1794 Southey Retrospect, The due observance of the cleanly law. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. xix. (1865) They eat..with indifference, calmness, and cleanly circumstances. |
† 5. Of actions: Neatly executed, adroit, dexterous, clever, deft, artful; = clean a. 11. Obs.
| c 1540 in Fisher's Wks. (E.E.T.S.) ii. Introd. 46 [The kinge] thought it a..cleanly excuse to aleadge the trooble of his conscience. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. i. (1593) 20 Hir husband by and by..devised a clenlie lie. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 857 Each practise ill Of coosinage and cleanly knauerie. 1639 Fuller Holy War i. xi. (1840) 18 This cleanly..conveyance to rid away those he hated. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull (1727) 85 By a cleanly conveyance under the table to slip a short note in Lewis's hand. |
† b. Deft in action, clever, smart. Obs.
| 1586 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. viii. (Arb.) 32 For euery hundreth verses (which a cleanely pen could speedely dispatch) he had a hundred angels. |
† 6. Of language, etc.: Neat, elegant; = clean a. 7. Obs.
| 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 79 He concludeth in fine Latine and cleanly termes. 1649 Milton Eikon. vi. (1770) 75 The words are good, the fiction smooth and cleanly. |
7. Comb., as cleanly-looking.
| 1857 Livingstone Trav. xix. 366 Houses with many cleanly-looking half-caste Portuguese. |
▪ II. cleanly, adv.
(ˈkliːnlɪ)
[OE. clǽnl{iacu}c: see -ly2.]
In a clean manner; in various senses of the adj.: without dirt or stain, purely, chastely, innocently, clearly, neatly, exactly, etc.
| c 1200 Winteney Rule St. Benet (1888) 107 Gyf þæt clænlice and mid ande don hi. a 1300 Cursor M. 26432 Yit quat o man es clenli scriuen. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxxvii. (1495) 719 They clensyth woundes and heelyth ful clenly. 1473 J. Warkworth Chron. 11 Noȝt so clenly kepte as schuld seme suche a Prince. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) II. 212 Them clenlyer to dyght. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. iv. 169 Ile purge..and liue cleanly, as a Nobleman should do. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth ii. (1723) 98 As the sacred Writer cleanly and modestly expresses it. 1883 Proctor in Knowledge 6 July 12/2 It [a telescope] comes sharply and cleanly into focus. 1886 Book-lore Mar. 109 Twenty-seven folio volumes..had been so cleanly drilled through by the larva of this beetle, that a string might be run through the hole. |
† b. Completely, wholly, entirely, quite; = clean adv. 5. Obs.
| c 1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 322 Gif þær beon læs manna þonne þæt lamb mæᵹe fretan, þonne nyme he hys neahᵹebur þe him ᵹehendost sy, þæt he mæᵹe þæt lamb clænlice fretan. c 1275 Lay. 26148 Þo was Arthur his ferde Clanliche igadered. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 434 Heo clanlyche yt versok. a 1300 Cursor M. 15556 Al þe care yee nu sal haf, Clenli yee sal for-gett. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 341 Al his ofspringe..was clenliche destroyed. c 1400 Melayne 494 Alle that was than in that place Thay slewe clenly. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 741 For ay mirth clenlie I quitclame. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vi. §24 At this time Church-men cleanly carried the cognisance of such offences. |
† c. Ably; cleverly, adroitly, artfully. Obs.
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 77 They will read you their seruice faire and cleanly. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 862 With which he thousands cleanly coosined. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 186 Cleanly coined lies. 1642 Rogers Naaman 528 They cleanly and slily winde themselves out of the authority of God. |