Wrongly

adv. Also 4 wrongli, -liche; 5 north. wrangeli, 9 Sc. and north. dial. wrangly. [f. WRONG a. + -LY². Cf. ON. rangliga, Norw. ranglege; MSw. vranglika, Da. vrangelig.]

  1.  In a wrong, undue or inappropriate fashion; unfittingly, improperly. Also Comb.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11069. Aȝens God, he ys nat quyte þat suffreþ for hys owne profyte Holy cherche wrongly be ȝyue To þo men þat wykkedly lyue.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. vii. So wrongly-consorted a power could not resist the ready minded force of Amphialus.

a. 1830.  Sir T. Lawrence, in Williams, Life & Corr. (1831), I. 131. I began life wrongly, I spent more money than I earned, and accumulated debts.

1848.  Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, ix. She … was so afraid of speaking wrongly, that she was silent.

1904.  Daily Chron., 2 May, 5/6. A wrongly-set switch.

  b.  Inaccurately; incorrectly. Cf. WRONGFULLY adv. 2.

1633.  [? Ware], Spenser’s State Irel., Pref. ¶ 3 b. He deceased at Westminster in the year 1599. (others have it wrongly 1598.)

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xi. § 13. 71. Mad Men,… having joined together some Ideas very wrongly,… mistake them for Truths.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 414. The judgement is evidently misstated, or wrongly printed.

1858.  [see URINOMETER].

1892.  Photogr. Ann., II. 735. If any houses have been omitted, or wrongly included under any heading.

  c.  In an erroneous manner; by mistake or misapprehension; erroneously, mistakenly; = WRONGFULLY adv. 2 b.

1755.  Johnson, Misbeliever,… one who holds a false religion, or believes wrongly.

1809–14.  Wordsw., Excurs., V. 508. What sees he but a creature … that yearns, Regrets or trembles, wrongly, or too much; Hopes rashly.

1838.  G. P. R. James, Robber, iv. You construe what I have said very wrongly.

1884.  trans. Lotze’s Logic, 407. To us, rightly or wrongly, general principles appear rather as [etc.].

1918.  Times Lit. Suppl., 28 March, 147/1. The methods … have, rightly or wrongly, largely fallen into discredit.

  2.  In an unfair, unjust or inequitable manner; unjustly, unfairly; = WRONGFULLY adv. 1.

1340.  Ayenb., 8. And yet zeneȝeþ he more þet deþ oþer porchaceþ ssame oþer harm to oþren wrongliche.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 92. False puple, That by-gylen good men and greue hem wrongliche.

c. 1400.  Cato’s Morals, in Cursor M., App. 1672. A-gaine man riȝtwise striue þou in na wise, ne wrangeli him greue.

1419.  26 Pol. Poems, 69. To wynne wrongly wele, wod þey gan wede.

c. 1450.  Myrr. our Ladye, II. 249. Many of them wrongly wandrynge from the ryghtnes of faythe.

c. 1586.  C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXIX. ii. Wrongly sett to worke my woe.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., I. v. 23. Thou … would’st not play false, And yet would’st wrongly winne.

1609.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, V. ci. There he had his rightfull punishment, Though wrongly done; and there he lost his head.

1839–40.  Wordsw., ‘The Roman Consul,’ 10. When they by wilful act A single human life have wrongly taken.

1847.  C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, viii. I have been wrongly accused.