ppl. a. Built on a good and solid base. lit. and fig.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 922 (Fairf.). And which a goodely softe speche Had that swete,… So frendely, and so wel y-grounded, Vp al resoun so wely-founded [Fondée sur toute raison].
1671. Woodhead, St. Teresa, I. xxiv. 164. My Prayer began to settle itself, like a well-founded Building.
1706. Congreve, Pindar. Ode to Queen, 5. Britain’s Queen,… Fix’d on the Base of Her well-founded State.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc., vii. 366. We will for this purpose establish a set of well-founded principles for our standard.
b. esp. of a belief, sentiment, statement, etc.: Having a foundation in fact; based on good or sure grounds or reasons.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, VIII. vii. Her jealousy, already but too well founded, received every hour the poisonous nourishment of fresh conviction.
1814. Scott, Wav., xl. A well-founded disbelief in the co-operation of the English Jacobites kept many Scottish men of rank from his standard. Ibid. (1827), Two Drovers, ii. The Cumbrian Squire, who had entertained some suspicions of his manager’s honesty, was taking occasional measures to ascertain how far they were well-founded.
1855. [see FOUNDED 1].
1905. F. Harrison, Chatham, iii. 42. There was no personal malignity in his accusations. He believed them to be well-founded: a majority of politicians in the country believed them to be well-founded. Some of the charges certainly were well-founded.
Hence Well-foundedly adv.
1888. Sat. Rev., 27 Oct., 486/2. They [the French] had prided themselves, not too well-foundedly, that in point of teaching they had far the better of England.
