adv. [f. ERRONEOUS + -LY2.] In an erroneous manner: † a. In an erratic or wandering manner. b. In a misguided manner, under the influence of error. c. Otherwise than is the fact; incorrectly.
a. 1528. Roy, Sat. (1845), 111. We wander in darcknes With out light erroniously.
b. 1512. Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 19. Pream., Erronyously defendyng and maynteynyng his seid obstynate opynyons.
1655. Fuller, Ch.-Hist., I. 2. They who erroneously conceive one God too little, will find two too many.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. I. vii. 129 (J.). I … conceived it (perhaps erroneously) rather to be rigorous than gentle.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 330. They erroneously imagined that there was an exact analogy between [etc.].
c. 1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. xliv. 203. This flowre is called Affodillus … but very erroniously.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xviii. 153. If vision … receive its objects erroneously, [it is called] Hallucination.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., 17. It is computed, but erroneously, mid-way between Durham and Newcastle.
1751. Johnson, Idler, No. 100, ¶ 1. Which produce very mischievous mistakes when they are erroneously interpreted.
1879. J. Grant, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 382/2. Hitherto been set down most erroneously in all maps.
