sternly, adv.
(ˈstɜːnlɪ)
Forms: see stern a. and -ly2.
In a stern manner (see the senses of the adj.); with sternness of temper, aspect, utterance, etc.; severely, harshly, unbendingly; † fiercely, cruelly; † loudly.
| c 897 ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xxviii. 197 Ac he him sona ondwyrde, & him suiðe stiernlice stierde. c 1205 Lay. 25240 Þa wes Arðures hired sturneliche awraððed. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 183 A mous..Stroke forth sternly and stode biforn hem alle. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 408 (Pepys MS.) A piler..Of yren wrought full sternely [Bodl. sturnelye, Fairf. sturmely]. c 1385 ― L.G.W. 239 For sternely on me he gan beholde. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. xii. (Tollemache MS.) Þese Goothes were sternely [1495 cruelly] killid. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 745 Sterynly thay songene [said of the sailors of a fleet]. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. xi. 37 He..strooke at him so sternely, that he made An open passage through his riven brest. 1615 Chapman Odyss. ix. 402 No mountaine Lion tore Two Lambs so sternly. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 406 To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied. a 1771 Gray Dante 56 Father, why, why do you gaze so sternly? 1835 Hawthorne Tales & Sk., Dr. Bullivant (1879) 136 We see the mountains rising sternly and with frozen summits up to heaven. 1846 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 147 He was sternly told that his defence was not satisfactory. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxv, I must be just, and sternly just, to myself, even if God be indulgent. 1911 Q. Rev. July 123 The Mildmay household was sternly Puritan. |
| Comb. 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 1114 Sternly-valiant to the stubborn-stout. 1808 Wordsw. George & Sarah Green 17 Those sternly-featured hills. 1814 ― Excurs. vi. 853 A sternly-broken vow. |