▪ I. towardly, a.
(ˈtəʊ(w)ədlɪ, ˈtɔədlɪ)
[f. toward a. + -ly1: cf. OE. tóweardl{iacu}c that is to come, future (which did not survive into ME.).]
1. Likely to lead to a desired result; promising success, propitious; helpful, favourable, advantageous; seasonable, befitting. (Cf. toward a. 4 b.)
| 1520 St. Papers Hen. VIII, II. 34 After ye shall have atteyned..any towardly comfourte, this yere, to bring our rebellious subjecttes there to summe obedience. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 69 What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soile, but wise and faithfull labourers? 1704 Swift T. Tub Concl. ¶6, I have observed many a towardly word to be wholly neglected. 1825 Mrs. Carlyle in Froude Life Carlyle (1882) I. 322 Your circumstances..may be in the process of time rendered more towardly. 1884 Athenæum 15 Mar. 340 He must choose a towardly hour. |
2. Promising, ‘hopeful’, forward; apt to learn, docile: chiefly of young persons or their dispositions.
| 1528 J. London Let. to Bp. Lincoln 25 Feb., in Lett. & Papers Hen. VIII, XLVII. 90 (P.R.O.) Neuer..to calle hym nor any other cambridge manne vnto hys most towardely colledge [Christ Church, Oxford]. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. (1577) C ij b, One of the best fauoured, and towardlyest personages in the worlde, deformed and marred in his greene age. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 959/1 They..rode to Enfield to see the prince,..greatlie reioising..to behold so proper and towardlie an impe. 1627 Abp. Abbot Narr. ii. in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 451 He was my Pupil at Oxford, and a very towardly one. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. v. Wks. 1738 II. 90 Them also I wish..mistaken, who write that Athelstan, jealous of his younger Brother Edwin's towardly Virtues,..caus'd him to be drown'd in the Sea. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 263 ¶1, I am the happy Father of a very towardly Son. 1863 Sat. Rev. 21 Mar. 368/2 He will be a towardly scholar under a willing teacher. |
b. Of plants: Promising, forward. ? Obs.
| 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 451 Easterly windes blasteth towardly blossoms. 1664 Evelyn Sylva (1776) 303 Purge them of all superfluous shoots and cions, reserving only the most towardly for the future stem. 1676 Hale Contempl. ii. 98 Towardly Plants, are by Death Transplanted into another Region, a Garden of Happiness and Comfort. |
3. Well-disposed, dutiful, tractable.
| 1513 Douglas æneis iii. viii. 70 Sen the sammyn four futtit beistis eik Bene oft vsit, full towartlie and meik, To draw the cart, and thoill bridill and renȝe. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 234 [A slave's] faithfulnesse and towardly disposition. a 1629 Hinde J. Bruen xx. (1641) 64 If hee saw them any more towardly, in duties of Religion. 1672 Eachard Hobbs' State Nat. (1705) 13 I'le promise you to be very towardly for the future. |
b. Favourably disposed, friendly, affable. (Cf. toward a. 4.)
| 15.. in Maton W. Counties (1797) I. 55 The ladi Elizabeth so towardli with the kinges honorable counselers. 1649 Davenant Love & Hon. iii. iii, Good heart, it is As towardly an old thing! a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiv. §41 England proved not yet so towardly as he expected. 1893 Nat. Observ. 18 Feb. 340/2 The men..were very courteous, and the women very towardly. |
▪ II. ˈtowardly, adv. Now dial. or arch.
(see prec.)
[f. toward a. + -ly2. Cf. OE. tóweardl{iacu}ce, in time to come, in the future (which did not survive in ME.).]
In a ‘toward’ or ‘towardly’ manner; with favourable disposition; willingly, compliantly, obligingly; docilely, tractably, submissively; with promise of good progress, promisingly: see the adj.
| 1481 Coventry Leet Bk. 484 Wherin ye shewed yewe ryght benyvolent and towardly disposed. 1523 Hen. VIII in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. I. 238 Thanks unto all the lords, capitains, and other whiche..have right towardly, benivolently, and conformably served as under you in this Jorney. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 195 Wyll you reedes shrinke still to all windes towardly? 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 55 To see my schollers go towardlie forward in their studies. 1704 Penn in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 342 If our friends will not behave towardly, I shall be constrained to break it. 1819 R. Anderson Cumbld. Ball. 43 How tow'rtly she com heame! 1874 Daily News 12 Aug., Postmaster-General Lord John Manners hands in the Twentieth Annual Report of his office as towardly as if he had done nothing but deliver letters all his life. |