adv. [f. as prec. + -LY2.] In an explicit manner.
1. As a matter of ‘explicit’ knowledge, belief or statement; expressly and not merely by implication. Opposed to implicitly. Now only (exc. Theol.) with reference to statements, in which use it approaches sense 2.
a. 1638. Mede, Wks., IV. lxxvii. 863. That the Roman Church … erreth not in … Fundamentalibus Fidei Articulis, because explicitely they profess them, howsoever … implicitely and by consequent they subvert them.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., xiv. § 8. 217. Every civill Law hath a penalty annexed to it, either explicitly or implicitly.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. 1842, I. 511. He explicitly limits his ideas of resistance.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, xvi. 437. Faith believes the whole revelation of God explicitly so far as it knows it; implicitly so far as it is not known as yet.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 323. Passages of various dates speak explicitly of the use of the compass for land purposes.
2. In a definite and unambiguous manner; unequivocally.
1756. Bp. Lowth, Lett. to Bp. Warburton, 129. I thought it incumbent upon me to tell you explicitly … that I was not to be frightened.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, I. iii. 107. Speak explicitly, and to the point.
1841. Miall, Nonconf., I. 1. We … avow most explicitly that [etc.].
3. With detailed exposition.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 24. This part of the office of conscience is beyond my present design explicitly to consider.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 195. Will you tell me a little more explicitly what [etc.]?
