Easily

adv. Formerly compared easilier, -est; also EASIERLY. Forms: 4 aisieliche, eseliche, eesely, eesili, 4–5 esely, esili, esyly, 5–6 easely, 6 easly, easilie, 6– easily. [f. EASY a. + -LY².]

  1.  Comfortably; without pain, discomfort or anxiety; luxuriously, self-indulgently.

c. 1300.  St. Brandan, 395. Ȝe schulle wende, Al eseliche withoute anuy [MS. Laud 108, 106 (Halliw.) has aisieliche].

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 20. To disceyue men in gostly goodis and worldly, and norischen hem esily in synne.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 471. Vp on an Amblere esily [v.r. esely] she sat.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xlviii. 298. Belyve ȝe brought me of þe beste And made my bedde full esyly.

1562.  Act 5 Eliz., xii. § 3. Persons seeking only to live easily, and to leave their honest Labour.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 339. The one sleepes easily because he cannot study.

Mod.  The patient rested much more easily last night.

  2.  Without constraint or stiffness; smoothly, freely.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. iii. Þis puppis [the hinder part of the brain] is harde þat þe synewis of meuynge meue þe eseloker [1535 easelier] and þe soner.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Sam. xx. 8. A swerde … which wente easely out and in.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, V. i. 159. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily.

Mod.  The window-frame fits quite easily.

  † 3.  Without hurry; deliberately, gradually. Also, calmly, quietly. Obs.

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, 1675. That through the worlde her fame goo Esely and not to faste.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 2208. When Priam hade his prologe preched to ende, Ector hym answarede esely and faire.

c. 1440.  Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 473. Let hit renne thorugh esiliche.

1483.  Vulg. abs Terentio, 7 b. Bere esily thy harme & it shall greue the the lesse.

1611.  Tourneur, Ath. Trag., II. iv. E 2. I am acquainted with the way…. Let’s easily walke.

1695.  Ld. Preston, Boeth., I. 9. She reach’d her Hand easily towards my Breast.

  4.  With little exertion, labor or difficulty.

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, 1929. So great a noyse … Men myght hyt have herd esily to Rome.

c. 1400.  Maundev., xiv. 160. The poyntes [of these contrefetes] wil breken lightly, and men may esily pollische hem.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. ix. 46. Withoute the clerkis … lay persoones schulen not esili liȝtli and anoon haue the dew vndirstonding of Holi Scripture.

1538.  Starkey, England, II. ii. § 12 (1871), 190. By thys mean … the controuersys … schold easelyar be pacyfyd.

1550.  Veron, Godly Sayings (1846), 9. Whyche thing we may easly se in the historyes of the olde auncyent Jewes.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., I. xiv. 65. Nothing is more easily broken then a mans word.

1718.  Motteux, Quix. (1733), II. 178. Who might easiliest get out of the City.

1878.  Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 29. It is a still better rule not to put off till to-morrow what we can do more easily to-day.

  b.  In phrases like easily possible, it may easily happen. Also easily (= beyond question) first, after L. facile princeps.

1590.  Swinburn, Testaments, 145. They are more straung, nor easilie like to happen.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 75. Very easily possible: he weares his faith but as the fashion of his hat.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 96. We name and bound things according to what they oftenest or easiliest do seem to us to be.

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, xlix. 6/32. He as easily last among the poets As thou surely the first among the pleaders.

1883.  W. Blaikie, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 907/1. Harvard has … easily the finest gymnasium in the world.

  5.  With little resistance or reluctance.

1649.  Milton, Eikon., Wks. 1738, I. 392. The House of Peers … gave … easily [their consent].

1656.  Ridgley, Pract. Physic, 56. If it come from the Brain it [a Catarrh] afflicteth easily, long and continually.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 153, ¶ 4. Youth catches Distempers more easily [than Age].

1715.  Desaguliers, Fires Impr., 38. They easily bear with the smothering Heat of Stoves.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 24. I … had too easily, and, I may say, too weakly, put that to the vote.

1871.  Tennyson, Last Tourn., 401. [He] had thought He loved her … wedded easily But left her all as easily.

  † 6.  Preceded by but: In a listless or indifferent manner; hence, in a trifling degree; with poor success; indifferently, meanly, poorly. Obs.

1475.  Bk. Noblesse, 29. Some peple endowed with worldly goodes,… can not depart but easily withe finaunce.

1476.  Sir J. Paston, in Lett., 776, III. 162. The Frenshe Kynge cheryssheth hyr [Queen Margaret] butt easelye.

1519.  Horman, Vulg., 16. Some nonnys kepe theyr virginite but easely. Ibid., 34. For lacke of tethe I cham my meate but easily.

1536.  Remed. Sedition, 16. Can they here goddis lawes, ye though they be but easily preached, and not abhorre sedition…?

  7.  (Made) in such a manner as to be easy.

1599.  Hakluyt, Voy., II. II. 75. The staires … are so easily made, that one may go them vp and downe a hors-backe.