Wildly

adv. [f. WILD a. + -LY².] In a wild manner, in various senses.

  † 1.  Without order, irregularly; in disorder or confusion; at random, ‘anyhow’; aimlessly, heedlessly. Obs. exc. as implied in other senses.

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 875. Were she neuer so glad, Hyr lokynge was nat foly sprad Ne wildely, thogh that she pleyde.

1450.  Paston Lett., I. 159. How the cuntre of N. and S. [= Norfolk and Suffolk] stonde right wildely, withowt a mene may be that justice be hadde.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 46. The kynge lyke a louynge broother woulde not sende hys syster wyldely withoute a dowar assured.

1595.  Shaks., John, IV. ii. 128. How wildely then walkes my Estate in France? Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., IV. iv. 550. As th’vnthought-on accident is guiltie To what we wildely do, so we professe Our selues to be the slaues of chance.

a. 1633.  G. Herbert, Country Parson, xxii. (1652), 92. The Questions must be propounded loosely and wildely, and then the Answerer will discover what hee is.

1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 193. There is more copiousness in things wildely scattered, than in things well and orderly digested.

[1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 80. The wildly-devious morning-walk.

1808.  Scott, Marm., VI. Introd. 19. Wildly-loose their red locks fly.

1820.  [Caroline A. Southey], Ellen Fitzarthur, 80. Fancy’s wildly-roving eye.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, vi. A hundred thousand shapes and substances of incompleteness, wildly mingled out of their places.]

  2.  Without restraint (in various shades of meaning). a. Beyond limits of reason; extravagantly, fantastically; distractedly, as if out of one’s wits.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. xiii. 72. A greet licence han writers and spekers … forto write and speke more wijldeli than thei schulden be suffrid forto write and speke.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 1150. As the poore frighted Deare that stands at gaze, Wildly determining which way to flie. Ibid. (1598), Merry W., III. iii. 94. Sweating, and blowing, and looking wildely.

1675.  M. Clifford, Hum. Reason, 68. This opinion is so wildly uncharitable, that it strikes out ten thousand Millions out of the book of Life, for each single Name that it leaves in it.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Past., VIII. 22. Damon … wildly staring upwards, thus inveigh’d Against the conscious Gods.

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, II. viii. Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought I was mad.

1802.  Maria Edgeworth, Moral T., Forester, xii. Enthusiasm frequently … injures those whom it wildly attempts to serve.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. vii. Yet must I think less wildly:—I have thought Too long and darkly, till my brain became … A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., x. II. 663. How many times should we have rushed wildly from extreme to extreme!

1913.  Daily Graphic, 26 March, 9/1. ‘The Great Adventure’ … is wildly extravagant and yet it is very simple and human.

  b.  Without moral restraint; dissolutely, licentiously; in freedom from control, at one’s own will.

1561.  trans. Calvin’s Four Serm., iii. I vij. Thei might haue liued in other places wildly & wantonly.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., V. i. 129. That I should … speake of something wildly By vs perform’d before.

1653.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Cert. Trav. Uncert. Journey, 8. Some few do travell in the wayes Divine, Some wander wildly with the Muses nine.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, li. That M. Valancourt had comported himself wildly at Paris, and had spent a great deal of money.

  c.  With unrestrained or violent movement, feeling or utterance; vehemently; excitedly; ‘frantically,’ ‘like mad.’

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 874. Some [bushes] twin’d about her thigh to make her stay, She wildly breaketh from their strict imbrace.

1599.  Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 187. Those septentrionall inundations,… have … wildly deluviated over all the South.

1656.  Cowley, Pindar. Odes, Nemeæan Ode Pindar, vii. Some wildly fled About the room, some into corners crept.

1754.  Gray, Pleasure, 29. Their raptures now that wildly flow.

1781.  Cowper, Hope, 517. The wretch, who once sang wildly, danc’d and laugh’d,… Is sober, meek, benevolent.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xxvii. A shout … terminating in a cadence so wildly prolonged, that … the deer started from their glens.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 173. The villagers danced wildly to the music.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 212. The flakes sped wildly in their oblique course.

1909.  Stacpoole, Pools of Silence, xix. The whole … herd [of elephants] wheeled, trumpeted wildly.

  3.  a. Without cultivation, naturally, like a wild plant. rare.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 180. Valour That wildely growes in them, but yeelds a crop As if it had beene sow’d.

1653.  H. More, Antid. Ath., II. vii. § 5. That which grows wildly of it self is worth nothing.

  b.  Without the refinement or orderliness of culture or training; rudely, roughly, savagely. Also (now esp.) in good sense: In a free, natural or unconventional style; with the romantic aspect of uncultivated country.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., V. i. 88. When he demean’d himselfe, rough, rude, and wildly. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., V. ii. 43. Her Hedges…, Like Prisoners wildly ouer-growne with hayre, Put forth disorder’d Twigs.

1730–46.  Thomson, Autumn, 1225. The toil-strung youth, By the quick sense of music taught alone, Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance.

1789.  G. White, Selborne, Invitation, 3. The mountain ground, Wildly majestic.

1799.  S. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 483. The wildly wooded banks of the Ardoch.

1842.  Borrow, Bible in Spain, vii. 44. Here the view became wildly interesting.