▪ I. deadly, a.
(ˈdɛdlɪ)
Forms: 1 déadl{iacu}c, 3 dædlich, diadlich, 3–4 deadlich, 3–5 dedlich, -lych, dedelik(e, 4 dedli, dedeli, deadli, dyadlich, dyeadlich, 4–5 deedli, 4–6 dedly, dedely, 5 deadlike, dedlyke, 5–6 deedly, 6 deadlie, -lye, deedely, dedlie, 6–7 Sc. deidly, deidlie, 5– deadly.
[OE. déadl{iacu}c, f. déad dead: see -ly1. Cf. OHG. tôtlich, MD. doodlick.]
† 1. a. Subject to death, mortal. Obs.
| c 1000 Homilies (Thorpe) II. 186 (Bosw.) Ðæt an deadlic man mihte ealne middaneard oferseon. c 1230 Hali Meid. 13 Iþis deadlich lif. a 1300 Cursor M. 10919 (Cott.) Godd bicom man dedli. 1340 Ayenb. 244 Ne eȝe dyeadlich ne may [þet] naȝt ysy. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 24, I am a creature dedly. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 123 Thinke thou art dedely. 1533 Gau Richt Vay (1888) 67 This deidlie body sal be cled with immortalite. a 1563 Bale Sel. Wks. (Parker Soc.) 97 Many holy prophets that were deadly men were martyred. 1839 Bailey Festus xx. (1852) 351 Even man's deadly life Can be there, by God's leave. |
† b. absol. A mortal; usually as pl. Mortals, human beings. Obs.
| c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 2867 Þare is nane dedely..þat suffice to serche þe domes of god. 1590 Jas. I Sp. Gen. Assembly Aug., I..shall Maintain the same against all deadly. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2009/2 Whom we shall humbly Obey..Maintain and Defend with our Lives and Fortunes, against all deadly, as our only Righteous King and Soveraign. |
† 2. a. In danger of death, like to die. Obs.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xliii. 22 (Mätz.) For al dai dedelik er we [morte afficimur] for þe. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 312 My lady hath my deeth y-sworn..but thy benignytee Vpon my dedly herte haue some pitee. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Cust. Country v. iv, How does the patient? Clod. You may inquire Of more than one; for two are sick and deadly..her health's despaired of, And in hers, his. |
† b. Of or belonging to death. Obs.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur xiii. xi, Not longe after that Ioseph was layd in his dedely bed. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour cxxxv. 191 She..became seke, and laye in her dedely bedde. |
† 3. Without life, inanimate; = dead a. 6. rare.
| a 1225 Juliana 22 To luten dedliche schaften as ȝe schulden to godd. c 1440 Secrees 132 It is swilk a secre þat vnnethis mannys brest may it vnderstonde, how may it þanne be wrete in dedly skyns? |
4. a. Causing death, or fatal injury; mortal, fatal.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. iii viii. §3 Forbræcon Romane heora aþas..and þær deadlicne siᵹe ᵹeforan. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 223 Ac ouercome vas he noȝt, þey ys wounden dedlych were. c 1377 Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 258 The cause..Of my dedely adversitie. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. xxvii. (1869) 19 Þer is no wounde so cruelle; for with out remedye it is dedlych. 1562 Winȝet Certain Tractates Wks. (1888) I. 3 Lyke..to ane schip in ane dedely storme. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 48 Every houre expecting the deadly blow of the hangman. 1768 Beattie Minstr. ii. xii, Tho' Fortune aim her deadliest blow. 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 34 The narrowing and deadly effect of the daily iteration of short-sighted commonplaces. |
b. As a quality of things: Having the property or capacity of causing death or fatal injury; poisonous, venomous, pestilential.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 361 Dedli drynke, ȝif þei taken it..anoieþ hem not. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 57 b, The inhabitants..doe set the whole Groue on fire, and by that meanes the deadly Serpents..are driuen away. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 447 Dire Stepdames..mix, for deadly Draughts, the pois'nous Juice. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. l. (1846) V. 3 The winds..from the south-west, diffuse a noxious and even deadly vapour. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. x. (1879) 220 Many savages..have seen..small animals killed by the musket, without being..aware how deadly an instrument it is. 1866 Treas. Bot. 1140 To camels..it is a deadly poison. |
c. spec. In names of poisonous plants.
deadly carrot, the genus Thapsia of umbelliferous plants, natives of Southern Europe. deadly nightshade, the Atropa Belladonna (family Solanaceæ), a rare shrub with dark purple flowers and large round black berries; the name is often popularly misapplied to the common Woody Nightshade, Solanum Dulcamara, with ovoid scarlet berries.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxi 446 Of great Nightshade, or Dwale. This noughtie and deadly plant is taken for a kinde of Solanum..The..fresh leaues of this deadly Nightshade may be applyed outwardly..The fruite of this Solanum is deadly. 1774 T. West Antiq. Furness 94 There grows the Lethal Bekan, or deadly nightshade. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIV. 282/2 The species [of Thapsia] are mostly natives of the countries of the Mediterranean, and are known under the generic name Deadly Carrot. 1886 Pall Mall G. 27 Aug. 4/1 The plant..popularly known as deadly nightshade in England is the woody nightshade or bitter-sweet..The appearance of the deadly nightshade, atropa belladonna of botany and medicine, is very different. |
5. Theol. a. Of sin: Entailing spiritual death; mortal (opposed to venial); esp. applied to the seven chief or ‘cardinal’ sins: see sin.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 56 He [David] dude þreo vtnummen heaued sunnen & deadliche. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 3362 Thir er tha hede syns that er dedely. 1340 Ayenb. 9 Lecherie..is on of þe zeuen dyadliche zennes. Ibid. 16 Hi byeþ heaued..of alle zennes, and ginninge of alle kueade, be hy dyadliche, be hy uenial. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) iii. 10 Þai say also þat fornicacion es na dedly bot a kyndely thing. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour H iij, By this synne of glotonye men falle in alle the other sixe dedely synnes. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, Fornicacion, and all other deadlye synne. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 111 Sure it is no sinne, Or of the deadly seuen it is the least. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 269 The Seven curs'd deadly Sins..Pride, Envy, Sloth, Intemp'rance, Av'rice, Ire, And Lust. 1819 Shelley Cenci iv. iii. 37 We do but that which 'twere a deadly crime To leave undone. |
† b. deadly sinner: one who commits deadly sin. Obs.
| 1622 Donne Serm. i. 5 He that comes alive out of that field [a duel] comes a dead man, because he comes a deadly sinner, and he that remains dead in the field is gone to an everlasting death. |
6. Aiming, or involving an aim, to kill or destroy; implacable, mortal, to the death.
| c 1205 Lay. 8550 Þine dædliche iuan. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 600 A leyde to þe Sarsyn strokes smerte riȝt als til his dedly fo. c 1430 Freemasonry 309 Throwghe envye, or dedly hate. 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis i. (Arb.) 17 Junoes long fostred deadlye reuengement. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 382 Betwixt whom and Sir Henry Berkeley was so deadly a quarrel. 1703 Rowe Fair Penit. i. i. 206 With deadly Imprecations of her Self. 1813 Byron Br. Abydos ii. xii, Although thy Sire's my deadliest foe. 1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 4 The contest..becomes sharp and deadly. |
7. Resembling or suggestive of death, death-like. a. Of colour or aspect: pale like that of a corpse.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 869 Thisbe, Who koude wryte which a dedely chere Hath Tesbe now. c 1400 Beryn 1337 His coloure gan to chaunge in-to a dedely hewe. 1561 Eden Arte Nauig. ii. xix. 50 If [the Sunne] shew yealowe or deadly, tempest is like to folow. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iv. 96, I know it by their pale and deadly looks. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc 289 By the flush'd cheek..And by the deadly paleness which ensued. 1803 Med. Jrnl. x. 152 In consequence of the..deadly look of the child. |
b. Death-like in unconsciousness or physical prostration.
| 1548 Hall Chron. 56 The Normans hearyng of the kynges arrival wer sodenly striken with a deadly feare. 1562 Winȝet Cert. Tractates i. Wks. 1888 I. 6 Quhat deidly sleip is this that hes oppressit ȝow? 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 413 Narcotick, causing deadly sleep. 1853 Lytton My Novel xi. vii, A deadly faintness seized her. |
c. Death-like in darkness, gloom, dullness, silence, etc.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17881 (Gött.) Þe folk in dedeli mirknes stadd. 1529 More Conf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1171/1 Continuall fatigacion woulde make it [the mind] dull and deadlye. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 29 There was such a deadlie silence in the porte. 1605 Shakes. Lear v. iii. 290 All's cheerlesse, darke, and deadly. 1638 Rouse Heav. Univ. (1702) 166 Sitting in darkness and a deadly shadow. |
8. a. Excessive, ‘terrible’, ‘awful’. colloq.
| 1660 Pepys Diary 1 Nov., A deadly drinker he is, and grown exceedingly fat. 1660 Ibid. 7 Dec., So to the Privy Seale where I signed a deadly number of pardons. 1745 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 382 It has been a deadly while I have taken to answer your kind letter. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. i. ii, You're come a deadly deal wrong! 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 281 Why such deadly haste to make money? 1847 J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) I. 146 The quantity of corn that a few sparrows can eat..cannot be very deadly. |
b. Characterized by dead accuracy.
| 1909 P. A. Vaile Mod. Golf v. 95 The peculiarity of the stymie stroke, played parallel with the ground, is its deadly direction. |
9. Comb., as deadly-dinted, deadly-handed, deadly-headed, deadly-like adjs.; deadly-lively a., combining dullness and liveliness, lively in a gloomy and depressing way (colloq.); hence deadly-liveliness.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, v. ii. 9 The deadly handed Clifford slew my Steed. 1596 C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 51 An hundred deadlie-dinted staves. 1630 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 55 She is in a most dangerous and deadly-like condition. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xli, Even her black dress assumed something of a deadly-lively air from the jaunty style in which it was worn. 1881 Mrs. Oliphant in Macm. Mag. XLIII. 492 He was taken to Mentone..to the deadly-liveliness..and invalid surroundings of that shelter of the suffering. 1891 Spectator 12 Dec. 855 The deadly-liveliness of flippant and forced humour. |
▸ slang (orig. U.S., now chiefly Austral. (esp. in Australian Aboriginal usage) and Irish English). Great, wonderful; fantastic.
| 1941 Life 27 Jan. 78/2 America's teen-age girls speak language of their own that is too divinely super... An orchestra that gives well (or sends) [i.e. thrills, excites] is called deadly, by way of approval. 1976 T. Murphy On Outside 21 Great, that's great, that's just deadly now. 1984 Black Voices Apr. 30 The next day..was painting day and the nice new coat of green paint looked deadly, real deadly. 1991 J. Chi et al. Bran Nue Dae in H. Gilbert Postcolonial Plays (2001) 337/2, I just wanna tell you that I think you singing good, that's good, that's deadly. 2000 M. Keyes Sushi for Beginners (2001) xxxii. 283 He's cool. Ashling, this is deadly news! Well, I hope you enjoy yourself. |
▪ II. deadly, adv.
(ˈdɛdlɪ)
Forms: 1 déadl{iacu}ce, 3–4 deadliche, 4 dyadliche, dedlyk, 4–6 dedely, 5 dedly, 6 deedly, Sc. deidly, 7 deadlie, 6– deadly.
[OE. déadl{iacu}ce, f. déad dead: see -ly2.]
† 1. In a way that causes death; mortally, fatally; to death. Obs.
| c 1050 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 436/8 Loetaliter, deadlice. a 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 33 He wonded þe Kyng dedely fulle sore. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 115 Dedely, mortaliter, letaliter. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. xiv. (1634) 71 They are wounded, but not deadly. 1627 May Lucan ix. (1431) 21 The snakes bite deadly, fatall are their teeth. c 1679 Roxb. Ball. VI. 147 Killing Beauty..Be no more so deadly Cruel. 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. xxix, When shower'd The death-bolts deadliest. |
† b. Theol. In a way that entails spiritual death; mortally; see deadly a. 5. Obs.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 58 Ȝif he is ivonded so þet he suneȝie, deadliche. 1340 Ayenb. 223 Ine oþre cas me may zeneȝi, oþer liȝtliche, oþer dyadliche. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) iii. 10 Þai say we synne dedly in þat we schaue oure berdes. 1503 Hawes Examp. Virt. xiii. 273 A dongeon longe and wyde Made for theym that do synne dedely. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 112/2 To see those men, which were as it were Angels of God, fall: yea, & that deadly. |
† 2. Implacably, mortally; to the death. Obs.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 2644 Sheo louede mykel þe slayn broþer, & dedlyk [v.r. dedely] hated sche þat oþer. 1393 Gower Conf. I. 332 Thus hate I dedely thilke vice. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 95, I haue heard that women either loue entirely or hate deadly. 1650 S. Clarke Eccl. Hist. i. (1654) 44 The spitefull Devil deadly pursuing him. |
3. In a manner resembling or suggesting death; as if dead; without animation.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 18155 (Cott.) Þaa waful wras sa dedli dim, All lighted þe lem þat come wit him. c 1430 Pilgr. Ly. Manhode i. lxxxix. (1869) 50 Al dedliche [tout mornement] he answerde hire. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vii. 26 They..Star'd each on other, and look'd deadly pale. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. vii. (R.), How comes it then, that in so near decay We deadly sleep in deep security? 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. i, Seeming to turn deadly faint. |
4. To a fatal or extreme degree; ‘mortally’, ‘to death’; extremely, excessively. colloq.
| [a 1300 Cursor M. 17225 (Cott.), I þat es sa dedli dill.] 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. (Arb.) 205 He..did..deadly belie the matter by his description. 1591 Spenser Virg. Gnat 446 Judgement seates, whose Iudge is deadlie dred. 1688 Miege Fr. Dict. s.v. Slow, He is deadly slow, il est furieusement long. 1703 Rowe Ulyss. Epil. 31 These Cups are pretty, but they're deadly dear. 1809 Scott Let. to Southey 14 Jan. in Lockhart, In this deadly cold weather. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. ix. 102 It is so deadly dull. 1878 Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. xiii, We were deadly tired. |
5. In a dead manner; like a dead thing. rare.
| 1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 50 To fall deadlie to the grounde, as a bodie without breath. 1844 Mozley Ess. (1878) II. 126 There is a belief in the Bible which is mere Bibliolatry, and..rests deadly in a mere book. |