adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In a fawning manner: a. Caressingly, joyfully. b. Cringingly, flatteringly, servilely.
a. 1790. Bewick, Hist. Quadrupeds (1807), 358. The sagacious animal, as if sensible of the importance of the charge, which in all probability was delivered to him by his perishing master, at length leapt fawningly against the breast of a man, who had attracted his notice among the crowd, and delivered the book to him.
b. 1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., 332, note. Those Princes … that (as is said of them) ‘Never see lookes, but fawninglie disguised.’
1654. Trapp, Comm. Matt., xii. 38. They [i.e., the Pharisees] had nothing to say for themselves, but fawningly to call him Master.
a. 1711. Ken, Edmund, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 178.
| Lucifer to the Chariot drawing near, | |
| Strove fawningly t’ attract good Edmund’s Ear. |
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 401. ‘It was set down in my instructions,’ answered Jeffreys, fawningly, ‘that I was to show no mercy to men like you.’
