propensely, adv. Now rare.
(prəʊˈpɛnslɪ)
[f. propense a. + -ly2.]
1. With inclination or propensity; pronely.
| 1675 Evelyn Terra (1729) 35 They but too propensely sink of themselves. 1754 Blacklock Hymn Supreme Being Poems 15 Thou behold'st the whole propensely tend To perfect happiness, its glorious end. 1829 Landor Imag. Conv., Epicurus, Leontion & T. Wks. 1846 I. 504/1 You..will have leaned the more propensely toward this opinion. |
† 2. Premeditatedly, intentionally: = prepensely. (See propense a. 2.) Obs.
| 1694 tr. Milton's Lett. State M.'s Wks. 1851 VII. 263 Nor can we apprehend..that the Blood of the Innocent, shed by a propensely malicious Murder, is not to be aveng'd. 1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. cxvii. (1783) IV. 99 One fellow-creature set his heart propensely against another! 1824 Landor Imag. Conv., Eliz. & Cecil Wks. 1846 I. 28/2 Those are the worst of suicides, who voluntarily and propensely stab or suffocate their fame. |
3. Favourably, readily. nonce-use.
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 409 If I had poor luck with Bass's mare, perhaps this draught of his may serve me more propensely. |