ˈvariously, adv.
[f. prec. + -ly2.]
1. In a various manner; in various or different ways; with variation or variety; differently, diversely.
| 1627 May Lucan vii. 620 The war, that variously had wander'd ore The fields, there stucke, there Cæsars fortune stay'd. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. §87 This stratagem was never understood; and was then variously spoken of. 1682 J. Norris Hierocles 7 But 'twas the Law of the Creation which variously order'd things according to the dignity of their natures. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. §6. 390 These Circumstances are variously combined in the various Kinds and Degrees of Madness. 1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea 326 Variously do those islands groan under the tyranny of their masters. 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. iii. vii. 406 About the lineage, and station, of this celebrated personage..writers have written variously. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xii. 87 The sound commenced again, changing its note variously. 1880 Geikie Phys. Geog. iv. 199 A ball..with an exterior crust which has been variously estimated at from twenty to a thousand miles in thickness. |
b. With adjs.
| 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exper. Phil. IV. xlix. 331 It emits the rays of light in every direction, and those rays are variously refrangible and colorific. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 398 Our prose became less majestic,..less variously musical than that of an earlier age. 1871 Carlyle in Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 378 The consequences for the time were variously sad. 1871 Tennyson Last Tourn. 226 So dame and damsel glitter'd at the feast Variously gay. |
c. U.S. At different times. rare.
| 1892 A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus (Ohio) I. 756 Samuel Perkins..kept a barber shop variously under the National Hotel and the Clinton Bank. |
2. Comb. With pa. pples., adjs., or pres. pples., as variously-coloured, variously-conditioned, variously-shaped, variously-working, variously-wrought, etc.
| a 1700 Evelyn Diary 8 Feb. 1645, The mouthes of these spiracles are bestrew'd with variously-colour'd cinders. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 171 A long-complicated succession of variously-working second causes. 1837 H. Caunter Lives Moghul Emp., Baber ix. 238 The variously-coloured page of human life. 1848 Buckley Iliad 193 Brass, gold, and variously-wrought iron. 1855 T. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 2) p. xvi, Variously-shaped eggs of Insects. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. §60 The stars shine out with variously coloured lights. |