unˈluckily, adv.
[un-1 11. Cf. ON. {uacu}lukkuliga.]
1. Unfortunately, unhappily.
Usually in parenthetic or loose construction.
| 1530 Palsgr. 840/1 Onluckely, de grant malheur. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iii. ii, Blind Fortune hating sharpe-sighted inventions, made them unluckily to be killed. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 92 Darab..most unluckily denyes, and goes on to levy men to support the rebellion. 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 128 Unluckily..there has happen'd a prodigious conjunction. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xxviii, Unluckily all our money had been laid out..in provisions. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 404 Unluckily for him, the order for pursuit was given too early. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xvii. 74 Of the state of things..we unluckily hear nothing. |
b. With verbs of happening, succeeding, etc.
| c 1550 Vertuous Scholehous H 6 b, Man feareth that it [sc. matrimony] myght succede vnluckely. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iv. 1 Things haue falne out..vnluckily. 1607 ― Timon iii. ii. 51 How vnluckily it hapned, that [etc.]. 1711 Swift Let. to Abp. King 8 Mar., Nothing could happen so unluckily..as Mr. Harley's death. 1819 Shelley Cenci v. i. 12 It has turned out unluckily. |
† 2. Unsuccessfully, badly. Obs. rare.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. xvi, Urania, whom a rich knight..had unluckely defended. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 305 A certain Painter,..who painted cockes most unluckily, gave his boy great charge, to chase the true cockes away from his picture. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xx, Many of those young Ladies..are so unluckily Bred,..that [etc.]. |