adv. [f. EVIDENT a. + -LY2.]
† 1. So as to be distinctly visible or perceptible; with perfect clearness, conspicuously. Hence in active sense, with vbs. of perceiving, knowing, explaining, etc.: Without possibility of mistake or misunderstanding; clearly, distinctly. Obs. or arch.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. xi. 101. Þanne alle the dyrknesse of his mysknowynge shal seen … euydently to [þe] syhte of his vndyrstondynge.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 1. Whiche grace euidently to me knowen and understonde hath compelled me [etc.].
1551. Turner, Herball, I. B viij b. It is euidently knowen that water wyll wexe thycke, if this roite be brused and put in it.
1584. Fenner, Def. Ministers (1587), 39. We haue here most manifestlie & most euidentlie written the contrarie.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. viii. (1611), 21. All those things which men by the light of their naturall vnderstanding euidently know.
1611. Bible, Gal. iii. 1. O foolish Galatians … before whose eyes Iesus Christ hath been euidently [Revised, openly] set forth.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 277. I found the way go evidently down hill.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xii. (1854), II. 41. An act … which evidently disclosed his [Tacitus’] intention of transmitting the empire to his descendants.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 437. All the substances hitherto examined in nature, have evidently appeared to be compounded of one or more of these elementary principles.
1833. Cruse, Eusebius, I. vi. 31. And this is evidently proved to have been fulfilled at the time of our Saviour’s birth.
2. So that the fact predicated is evident; manifestly, obviously. Now chiefly parenthetic; = ‘as manifestly appears,’ ‘as may be clearly inferred.’
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxviii. § 5. 164. No Idea therefore can be undistinguishable from another…: for from all other, it is evidently different.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iii. 387. Those who walk and talk in their Sleep, have evidently the Nerves of the Muscles so free, as that [etc.].
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxxvi. 292. Reason was so evidently on their side.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. 391. They evidently regarded Macedonia as a bulwark against the encroachments of Rome.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 71. The spirit and the muscles were evidently at war.
† 3. Sc. Law. By evidence of a deed or document. Obs.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Forme of Proces, 118. Quhen the defender proves his exception, or duplie, be sic wreit, and evidently as said is, lib. 1. c. 25. 12. quon attach. c. 81.
