cardinally, adv.
(ˈkɑːdɪnəlɪ)
[f. cardinal a. + -ly2.]
Fundamentally, pre-eminently.
| 1866 P. G. Medd in Ch. & World 348 That cardinally important subject. 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 36 Our own [age] is characteristically and cardinally an epoch of transition. |
¶ Humorous perversion of carnally (cf. cardinal sins).
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. i. 81 My wife, who, if she had bin a woman Cardinally giuen, might haue bin accus'd in fornication. |