ppl. a. Rightfully merited or earned.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxii. § 9. We … caused the wicked Historian to conclude his history, with his owne well-deserued death.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 20. The lignage right, From whence he tooke his well deserued name.
1619. Drayton, Bar. Wars, II. xliv. 25. Your Bayes must be your well-deserued blame, For your ill actions quench my sacred flame.
1756. C. Smart, trans. Horace (1826), II. 95. He who derived a well-deserved title from the destruction of Carthage.
1825. Scott, Talism., v. Until his awful judge shall at length appoint the well-deserved sentence to be carried into execution.
1889. J. B. Bury, Hist. Later Rom. Emp., I. 76. The Gildonic war, through which Stilicho won well-deserved laurels.
† b. In active sense or loose construction = ‘having well deserved it.’ Obs.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. i. 192. If I breake time, or flinch in property Of what I spoke, vnpittied let me die, And well deseru’d.
