adv. [f. as prec. + -LY2.]
† 1. In a famous or celebrated manner, renownedly. Obs.
1579. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 670. Rome doeth set foorth the merites of Peter and Paule the more famously and solemnly.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., II. iii. 19.
| For this Land was famously enrich’d | |
| With politike graue Counsell. |
1684. Winstanley, in Shaks. C. Praise, 302. By his conversing with jocular Wits, wherto he was naturally enclined, he became so famously witty, or wittily famous, as without learning, he attained to an extraordinary height in the Comique strain.
1727–36. Bailey, Famously, renownedly.
† 2. In or by common talk; commonly, openly. Also, in bad sense: Notoriously. Obs.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 32. Thos odoriferous Ilandes of Molucca, so famously spoken of for the great abundaunce of swete fauours and spices founde therein.
1592. Nashe, Intercepting of Cert. Lett., G iij. [Stannyhurst] had neuer been praisd by Gabriel for his labour, if therein hee had not bin so famously absurd.
1630. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 277. Which story is famously knowne in Cambridge.
1637. R. Humphrey, trans. St. Ambrose, Pref. It notoriously appeareth, and famously to their eternall infamy brands the Papists.
1701. Grew, Cosm. Sacra, IV. ii. § 32. They looked on the Particulars, as Things famously spoken of.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xxxiv. 19. The Town is famously infamous for a Seminary of female Lewdness, where Numbers of Girls are trained up for the Destruction of unwary Youths.
† b. Publicly; so that the fact may be widely known. Obs.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), 709/1. The said John Hus shall be famously deposed and degraded from his priestly Orders.
3. colloq. Excellently, splendidly, capitally. Cf. FAMOUS a. 5.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 37. 1 Cit. I say vnto you what he hath done Famouslie, he did it to that end.
1671. Lond. Gaz., No. 544/4. The City of Argiers … is famously carved and painted in her stern, being a new stout Ship.
1746. Letter, in The Leisure Hour, XXIX. (1880), 119/1. At the races I had the terrible mortification of seeing a horse of Willy’s famously beat, and not only that, but distanced in the very first heat.
1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, I. i. The bans on her side will be published with equal privacy in a little church near the Tower, where my name will be no less unkown than here. Oh, I’ve contrived it famously.
1858. Ramsay, Remin., v. (ed. 18), 119. We get on famously at present.
