Vastly

adv. [f. VAST a. + -LY².]

  1.  In a waste or desolate manner. rare^–1.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 1740. Who, like a late-sackd island, vastly stood Bare and unpeopled in this fearful flood.

  2.  Immensely; to an extent or degree not readily grasped or estimated.

1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 17. Though these hopes be vastly hyperbolical.

1676.  Etheredge, Man of Mode, I. i. Why, first she’s an Heiress vastly rich.

1708.  J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit. (1710), 7. It hath many safe and commodious Ports and Havens, as Falmouth vastly spacious.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., III. § 5. This vastly great, or infinite power and wisdom.

1862.  Cornhill Mag., Jan., 73. Popular power has increased vastly during the last half-century in our own country.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 4 April, 4/6. A policy which will add so vastly to its influence and power.

  b.  Freq. with words or phrases denoting comparison.

1665.  Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 25. When the Actions whereby they are produced are so vastly diverse.

1693.  Apol. Clergy Scot., 35. In a sense vastly diferent from what was intended by Mr. Rule.

1710.  J. Clarke, trans. Rohault’s Nat. Philos. (1729), I. I. ii. 53. The Bullet will be carried vastly further than the small Shot.

1778.  Sheridan, Camp, II. iii. To be sure, a circus or a crescent would have been vastly better.

1820.  Hazlitt, Table-T., Ser. II. xvi. (1869), 322. You have got on vastly beyond the point at which you have set out.

1846.  Greener, Sci. Gunnery, 229. It is of trifling consequence … that the explosion of sporting powder is vastly more rapid and powerful.

1879.  Tourgee, Fool’s Err., xxii. 134. The Union people here are vastly in a minority.

  3.  In weakened sense as a mere intensive: Exceedingly, extremely, very. (Cf. VAST a. 5.)

  Common in fashionable use in the 18th cent., chiefly with adjs. (a), but occasionally with vbs. (b) or advs. (c). The abuse of vast and vastly is commented on by Lord Chesterfield, Lett. No. 195. and 196.

  (a)  1664.  Verney Mem. (1907), II. 204. She putts on and assumes much, very much of the vastly extravagant humors.

1722.  De Foe, Plague (1754), 219. The City … was vastly full of People.

1733.  T. Burnet, MS. Let., 30 Jan. Believe me most affectionately, though vastly peevish, Yours T. B.

1782.  Miss Burney, Cecilia, VI. xi. This is all vastly true; but I have no time to hear any more of it just now.

1826.  J. Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), II. 78. A vastly acute and doggedly intellectual fellow.

1850.  Thackeray, Pendennis, xxii. Mrs. Portman … was vastly bitter against Pen … since his impertinent behaviour to the Doctor.

1872.  Black, Adv. Phaeton, vi. 68. That small person … was becoming vastly indignant.

  (b)  1750.  H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 358. I laughed vastly.

1766.  Goldsm., Vicar, xii. I protest I like my Lady Blarney vastly.

c. 1850.  Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 234. I should vastly like to examine this little hunchback a little more closely.

1879.  Mrs. Macquoid, Berksh. Lady, 182. That will please me vastly.

  (c)  1756.  Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Club), 127. He … sung vastly fine.

1799.  Sheridan, Pizarro, Prol. An’t you come vastly late?

1814.  Jane Austen, Lady Susan, xv. She talks vastly well.

1837.  Lytton, E. Maltravers, 5. As for bed, this chair will do vastly well.