Bluntly

adv. [f. BLUNT a. + -LY².]

  † 1.  Stupidly; with dulled perception; without quickness of wit. Cf. BLUNT a. 1. Obs.

1557.  Tottell’s Misc. (Arb.), 136. For he that blontly runnes, may light among the breers.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 45. Al our senses weare … bluntlye benummed.

1711.  Countrey-Man’s Lett. to Curat, 75. You may guess how bluntly I look’d, upon being taken up so sharp.

  2.  Without a sharp point or edge; obtusely.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, II. ciiii. 290. Leaues bluntly iagged rounde about the edges.

1768.  Parsons, in Phil. Trans., LVIII. 193. Bluntly serrated.

1821.  Hooker, Flora Scot., II. 22. Pileus deep buff, bluntly conical.

  12.  Rudely; without ceremony or delicacy; abruptly, curtly.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 796/2. Because we come bluntly to it.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 36. I can … deliuer a plaine message bluntly.

1617.  Hieron, Wks. (1620), II. 415. Neuer fall bluntly to any religious dutie which God requires.

1741.  H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann (1834), I. x. 32. They bluntly refused to go.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, xvii. 269. Ingram had come prepared to state harsh truths bluntly.