distinctly, adv.
(dɪˈstɪŋktlɪ)
[f. distinct a. + -ly2.]
† 1. In a distinct or separate manner; separately, individually, severally. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. i. 2 The grauel of the se, and the dropis of reyn, and the daȝes of the world, who distinctli hath noumbrede? 1425 Found. St. Bartholomew's 23 Sundry thyngys by ther propyr namys distynctly he callide. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 54, I will speake distinctlie of those two pointes. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 200 On the Top-mast, The Yards and Bore-spritt, would I flame distinctly, Then meete, and ioyne. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Antiq. xvi. iv. §4 Their father..took each of them distinctly in his arms. |
† b. distinctly from: so as to be distinguished from; in contradistinction to. Obs.
| a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts (1684) 16 Distinctly from that he chose plain Fare of Water and the gross Diet of Pulse. |
2. In a distinct or clear manner; without confusion or obscurity; so as to be clearly perceived or understood; with clear perception or understanding; clearly, plainly.
| 1382 Wyclif Neh. viii. 8 And thei radden in the boc of the lawe distinctli and apertli to vnderstonde. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xvii. (1495) 62 Though a thinge be ryght tofore the eye, yf it be to ferre therfrom, it is not dystynctly knowe. 1535 Coverdale Isa. xxxii. 4 The vnparfite tunge shal speake planely and distinctly. 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 290, I remember a masse of things, but nothing distinctly. 1709 Steele & Addison Tatler No. 103 ¶13 He could see nothing distinctly. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xi. 110, I tried to speak twice without making myself distinctly audible. 1883 Froude Short Stud. IV. i. x. 112 They did not know, perhaps, distinctly what they meant to do. |
b. In mod. use (chiefly with adjs. or adjectival phrases): In a way clear to the mind or perception; clearly, unmistakably, decidedly, indubitably. (Cf. distinct a. 3 c.)
| 1858 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 21 An object which was distinctly not political. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. vii. 133 One would have thought that horses were distinctly in the way. 1873 Black Pr. Thule xiv. 217 The young American lady had distinctly the best of it. 1874 Green Short Hist. iii. §1. 114 The English court had become the centre of a distinctly secular literature. 1893 Critic (U.S.) 11 Mar. 147/1 Now the favorite slang word of literature is ‘distinctly’. Heroines are now ‘distinctly regal’ in their bearing, and there is about the heroes a manner that is ‘distinctly fine’. |