secularly, adv.
(ˈsɛkjʊləlɪ)
[f. secular a. + -ly2.]
In a secular manner.
1. As a secular or lay person; in accordance with secular procedure; non-ecclesiastically.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 384 For in sum place..þe clergi occupieþ þe seculer lordeschip seculerli. 1395 [Purvey] Remonstrance (1851) 152 Not oon shal appropre seculerli to himsilf alle the profitis of the chirche. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 342 A monke þat was..syttand prowdelie vppon a fayr palfray, and rydyng passand secularelie. 1511 Colet Serm. Conforming B iv b, Pristes nat lyuynge pristly but secularly. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xxii. (1860) 239 As I held ecclesiastically by the one party, and secularly by the other, I found my position..a rather anomalous one. 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 141 One was..secularly dressed, but with an indelible clerical stamp. 1900 Nation 19 Mar. 975/1 Offences with which the Reformers dealt ecclesiastically are now dealt with secularly. |
2. In a worldly manner; in a manner characterized by the absence of religion.
| 1840 G. S. Faber Regeneration 180 The youth had received Baptism dissemblingly, secularly, impenitently, unworthily. 1893 E. L. Wakeman in Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 3 Aug., Possessing no secularly educative or diverting features. |
| Comb. 1902 Daily Chron. 18 Feb. 6/6 A secularly-conducted State school. |
3. Astr. Over a long period of time.
| 1971 Nature 24 Dec. 453/1 We might expect δf to be secularly dependent in the same way as He (∝ P—2). 1979 Ibid. 20 Sept. 200/1 Even in the worst case of deviation from thermal equilibrium, that is when the fully convective star expands adiabatically,..the system would still be secularly stable against mass exchange. |