adv. Forms: α. see HALELY. β. 4–5 hollich(e, 4–6 hoolly, holy, holly, 5–6 hooly, 6–8 wholy, (4 hoolliche, holiche, holyke, holilich, holi, hooli, 5 hoolich, holych, holli, holely, hoyly, 6 hol(l)ye, hoolye, holie, whol(l)ye, whol(l)ie, 7 wholelye, whollily), 7–8 wholey, 7–9 wholely, 6– wholly. [ME. hol(l)iche, iholliche, repr. OE. type *(ʓe)hállíce: see WHOLE a. and -LY2. For the northern form see HALELY.
The normal development of OE. (*ʓe)hállíce was (y)hǭlliche (14th–15th c.), giving ultimately holly, which survives dialectally. But, by the influence of the adj. hǭl WHOLE, a type with a long root-vowel was differentiated, hǭlliche. The current spelling wholly descends from the ME. holliche, and has ultimately prevailed over the once common wholely and wholy, which would more normally denote the resultant standard pronunciations. (For the simplification of ll to l cf. early forms of FOULLY, fuli, fouly, fowlye, and SOLELY, sooly, soly.)]
In all senses formerly sometimes pleonastically joined with all, full or fully: cf. WHOLE A. 7.
1. As a whole, in its entirety, in full, throughout, all of it; † formerly also (in ref. to a pl. or collect. sb.), all of them, all together, in a body. Now rare.
a. 1300. [see HALELY].
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 1737. Al holyke [v.r. All holy] com þer flote In Dertemuthe. Ibid., 14357. Þre ȝer holy was he kyng. Ibid. (1338), Chron. (1810), 34. Alle þe regne holy was þat tyme in his hand.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 25. Abraham … seigh holy [v.r. hoolly] þe Trinite, Thre persones in parcelles departable fro other.
1395. E. E. Wills (1882), 8. To parfourne holelich and trewlich this … testament.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3368. They heldede to hir heste alle holly at ones.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xxxv. 103. To restore all þinges, not only holy, but also abundantly & ouerhepid.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 18 § 1. As yf all the … purporte of the same Commission ware in this present acte holly and particularly rehersed.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lv. § 7. That infinite word … could not in part but must needes be wholie incarnate.
1611. Bible, Lev. vi. 23. Euery meat offering for the Priest shal be wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten.
1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, xxxi. 536. Non omnis moriar, I shall not wholly die; there is a life I live, which death cannot touch.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 158, ¶ 4. I would have a Spectator wholly writ upon Good-breeding.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. xi. He … took off the brandy wholely at twa draughts.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., III. IV. vii. § 3. A man who can see truth at all, sees it wholly, and neither desires nor dares to mutilate it.
2. Completely, entirely, to the full extent (so that there is no deficiency); altogether, totally, thoroughly, quite.
[a. 1300, etc.: see HALELY.
c. 1315, 1340: see YHOLLICHE.]
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B. 520, lf. 56. Ant ȝif ani his ipult out of suuche entre, sal he recoueren his seisine of him pleinliche ant holliche ase he þe oþere les?
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 104. Þat my hous may holly by halkes by fylled.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 495. Nis he holly at my hest in hard & in nesche.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 4. Sche … dede al holi what he wolde.
c. 1400. trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 105. Y desire welfare, helth, strynght and goodnesse, all holely to come to vche man.
c. 1440. York Myst., viii. 22. Þai shall be … for-done hoyly, hyde and hewe.
1550. Crowley, Last Trumpet, 551. Do thy selfe wholly addres To walke in thy vocation.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 270. The Archers of England shot so wholy together, that the Frenche men were faine to geue place.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 355. Amor & dilectio (both loue in English) were the words most, & all wholy in request.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., II. ii. 10. Sleepe hath ceiz’d me wholly.
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 104. Mr. Bradford makes wholy for our present Tenet.
a. 1708. Beveridge, Thes. Theol. (1711), I. 8. As he [sc. God] is not divided … in Himself, so neither let him be in your Affections; but love Him wholly, and wholly Him.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, i. 5. We were wholly at a loss what to do.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 358. The great majority of the houses … have … been wholly, or in great part, rebuilt.
1918. Sir C. P. Lucas, in Cornhill Mag., June, 636. His [Gladstone’s] words and their substance were wholly admirable and true.
b. Entirely, so as to exclude everything else; hence practically equivalent to ‘exclusively, solely, only, without exception.’
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 598, in Macro Plays, 95. Goddys seruyse þou must forsake, holy to þe werld þee take.
1551. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke xxii. 24–30. Neither shall he take the laude and praise vnto himselfe, but referre the same entierly and whollye vnto God.
1603. C. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1891), 47. Inhabited wholelye by Welshmen.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxx. 180. The Instruction of the people, dependeth wholly, on the right teaching of Youth.
a. 1708. [see 2].
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, ii. 67. They shall give up themselves wholy hereto without entangling themselves with the World.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xvii. My ear was wholly intent on analyzing the mingled sounds.
1859. Tennyson, Marr. Geraint, 441. A creature wholly given to brawls and wine.
