Clearly

adv. [f. CLEAR + -LY².] In a clear manner.

  † 1.  Brightly; luminously; transparently. Obs. (exc. as blended with 2).

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 4422. Into a choys chaumber þe clerli was peinted.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, VI. 100. The moyn wes schynand rycht cleirly.

1535.  Fisher, Wks., 381. They bee the brighter glasses and more cleerly receyue this loue.

1655.  Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 17. I have discover’d so many fresh Graces in her, and those shine so clearly.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Invis. World, I. § 2. The spiritual agility and clearly-lightsome nature of that whereby they are enlived.

  2.  With optical distinctness; without obscurity; opposed to dimly.

1300.  St. Brandan, 461. Hi seȝe in the see as clerliche as hi scholde alonde.

1340.  Ayenb., 38. Þanne we him ssolle ysy face to face clyerlyche.

1382.  Wyclif, Mark viii. 25. He is restorid so that he syȝ clerely alle thingis.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 243/3. The more he wente … the more clerlyer he sawe.

1820.  Keats, Isabel, xlvi. Clearly she saw … Pale limbs at bottom of a crystal well.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. § 11. 79. The top of the mountain rose clearly above us.

  3.  Of mental vision: With undimmed perception, with full and complete understanding; distinctly.

c. 1400.  Beryn, 3867. They perseyvid clerelich in the plee thurh out hir ffrendis had the worse side.

1413.  Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, IV. ii. (1483), 59. That thou knowe clerely how that this drye tree was restablysshed.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., 53. Not clearly discerning the almost obliterated constitution of your ancestors.

1854.  Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Wks. (Bohn), III. 153. There is no choice of words for him who clearly sees the truth.

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola (1880), I. II. xxxii. 390. He had begun to see clearly that he could not persuade her into assent.

1884.  Gladstone, in Standard, 29 Feb., 2/5. I hope that will be clearly understood.

  4.  With clearness and distinctness of expression or exposition; plainly.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 18851. Clerli spak he þat he wald.

1340.  Ayenb., 174. He ssel zigge his zennes clyerliche and nakedliche.

1388.  Wyclif, Isa., Prol. The sacramens of ther beleeue to shewe ful clerly to the hethene.

a. 1535.  More, On the Passion, Wks. 1322/1. For to declare the more clearelye, that the cause of his desyre, was [etc.].

1611.  Bible, Job xxxiii. 3. My lippes shall vtter knowledge clearely.

1647.  Cowley, Mistr., Her Unbelief, iii. (1669), 71. Nor does the Cause in thy Face clearlier shine, Than the Effect appears in mine.

1884.  trans. Lotze’s Metaph., 356. To put the matter shortly and clearly.

  5.  Manifestly; evidently.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 287. But Britaine was clerely excepted.

1595.  Shaks., John, III. iv. 122. In this which he accounts so clearely wonne.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxv. 218. There be many other places that clearly prove the same.

1752.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 191, ¶ 14. They, who have been so clearly detected in ignorance or imposture.

1875.  Jevons, Money (1878), 20. A statement clearly implying that skins were taken as the representative of value.

  b.  Used parenthetically, = …, it is clear,…; the truth or correctness of the assertion being the thing that is clear.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. App. 744. This version is clearly wrong.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 187. He was clearly not aware of the importance of the principle.

1879.  Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. § 67. The animal has clearly no power over them.

  6.  With distinctness of sound; audibly.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Sam. xiv. 19. Greet noyse is out sprongen … and it wexe litilmele, and cleerliker it sownyde.

c. 1450.  Merlin, xiv. 207. That the sownde was herde in to the Citee clerly.

1721.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6002/3. Does not pronounce his Words clearly.

  † 7.  Honestly; straightforwardly, frankly. Obs.

1389.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 4. So þ^t þe wardeins mowe here acompt ȝeld clerelich.

1534.  Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), T vij b. I thanke the goddes immortall, that haue suffred me to lyue so clerely.

1603.  Drayton, Odes, ii. 13. Thy ancient Vigils yeerely I have observed cleerely.

a. 1626.  Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law, 28. If an heire … doe not deale clearely with the court when he is sued, that is, if he come not in immediately.

1680.  Tillotson, Serm., 172 (J.). If he will deal clearly and impartially.

  † 8.  Thoroughly; completely; unreservedly; entirely; = CLEAN. Obs.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 389. Thei shul be clensed clereliche & wasshen of her synnes In my prisoun purgatorie.

c. 1440.  Generydes, 1063. The kyng hym gaue clerly an Erlys lande.

1523.  Fitzherb., Surv., 1. Lette a man make a castell towre or any maner of newe buyldinges and finysshe it clerely.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 685. Clerely to extinguish the house of Yorke.

1633.  T. James, Voy., 105. When the snow was cleereliest gone off the ground.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., 24. The bones were not so clearly pickt, but some coals were found amongst them.

1816.  Philip Quarll, 67. They went clearly away.

  † 9.  Without deduction, net.; = CLEAR 16. Obs.

1462.  J. Paston, in Lett., 461, II. 114. Havyng a certeyn pension for her sustentacion payid clerly in money without any Charge.

1523.  Fitzherb., Surv., 22 b. Landes to the value of xls. clerely aboue all charges.

1638.  Sir R. Cotton, Abstr. Rec. Tower, 25. By which his Majesty should gaine ten hundred thousand pound cleerely.

  † 10.  Without entanglement or embarrassment; = CLEAR 18. Obs.

1607–12.  Bacon, Ess. Despatch (Arb.), 248. He that doth not devide, will never enter well into businesse; and he that devideth to much, will never come out of it clearelye.

1663.  Charleton, Chorea Gigant., 12. The One stumbles upon an Altar-stone … over which the Other leaped cleerly, without so much as ever touching it.