▪ I. leisurely, a.
(ˈlɛʒ(jʊ)əlɪ)
[f. leisure n. + -ly1.]
1. Of persons: Having leisure or unoccupied time; proceeding without haste.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 515 With these and manifold other antiquities, Gillius can best acquaint the more leasurely Reader. 1816 Coleridge Lay Serm. 318 The men of leisurely minds. 1824–9 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 II. 236 The leisurely and rich agriculturist, who goeth out a-field after dinner. |
2. Of actions or agents: Performed or operating at leisure or without haste; deliberate.
| 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies vii. ii. 500 They spent fourescore yeares in this manner of leisurely travell, the which they might have done in a moneth. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 159 ¶4 Upon a more leisurely Survey of it. 1746 Berkeley Sec. Let. Tar-water §10 Wks. 1871 III. 475 The same medicine..is a leisurely alterative in chronical disorders. 1875 J. H. Bennet Winter Medit. iv. xix. 614 A leisurely journey across the south of France. |
▪ II. ˈleisurely, adv.
[f. as prec. + -ly2.]
At leisure, without haste; with deliberate or leisurely motion or action.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans B iv b, Than softe and layserly fall oppon yowre kneys. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 161 b, That he synge or saye his duty distinctly and leyserly. 1598 Epulario G j, Let it broile very wel and leisurely. 1670 Milton Hist. Brit. Wks. 1738 II. 2 After the Flood, and the dispersing of Nations, as they journey'd leisurely from the East. 1796 H. Glasse Cookery v. 53 Let it do leisurely, keep it basting. 1807 Wordsw. Misc. Sonn. i. xiv, A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by One after one. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 105 In the afternoon we..proceeded leisurely with our two guides up the slope. |