[f. FOND a. + -LY2.]
† 1. Foolishly. Obs.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 16459 (Laud).
| Iudas stode among the folk | |
| and beheld & sie | |
| how fondly they with hym dalt. |
1401. Political Poems (Rolls), II. 97–8.
| Wherfore thou feynest fonnedli | |
| that oure Lord we sclaundre. |
1483. Cath. Angl., 137. Fondely, stulte.
1551. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. ix. 23. Dyd suche other thynges as menne be wont to doe verye fondly, in the funerals of ryche menne and great menne.
1634. Ford, P. Warbeck, IV. iv.
| He fondly angles who will hurl his bait | |
| Into the water ’cause the fish at first | |
| Plays round about the line and dares not bite. |
1647–8. Joseph Beaumont, Psyche, XIX. xxx.
| Still thy Adventure’s management debases | |
| The fondly-founded credit of thy Bliss. |
2. With self-pleasing or affectionate credulity.
1762. Goldsm., Cit. W., xlvii. (1837), 189. You would fondly persuade me, that my former lessons still influence your conduct, and yet your mind seems not less enslaved than your body.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, III. 481.
| Not so pure by nature that they needs | |
| Must keep to all, as fondly all believe, | |
| Their highest promise. |
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 12. ‘I will henceforth,’ said I, ‘endeavour to be all that she fondly imagined me.’
1851. Gladstone, Glean., VI. lxix. 45. I, for one, am fondly perhaps, but yet firmly, assured, that, on the day when our Bishops shall be bold to show their confidence in their own position.
1861. Lord Brougham, Brit. Const. x. 131. The English, and more especially that party among them which chiefly maintains popular rights, have fondly traced the origin of our free institutions to the most remote ages, and have easily lent themselves to the belief that there never was a period when a system of representative Government did not exist in the country.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 27 June, 159/1. Legal learning is not, we fondly hope, a thing of the past.
3. Affectionately, lovingly, tenderly. Also, with show of affection, caressingly.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 9.
| As a long parted Mother with her Child, | |
| Playes fondly with her teares and smiles in meeting, | |
| So weeping, smiling greete I thee my earth, | |
| And do thee fauours with my royall hands. |
1737–8. Savage, The Volunteer Laureat, VI. 9.
| To be or fondly or severely kind, | |
| To check the rash or prompt the better mind, | |
| Parents shall learn from her, and thus shall draw | |
| From filial love alone a filial awe. |
1757. Foote, The Author, I. Wks. 1799, I. 131. Rob. You lov’d her, Sir? Gov. Fondly—nay, foolishly, or necessity had not compell’d me to seek for shelter in another climate.
1797–1800. Coleridge, Christabel, Poems (1862), 287.
| And now the tears were on his face, | |
| And fondly in his arms he took | |
| Fair Geraldine, who met the embrace, | |
| Prolonging it with joyous look. |
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., III. 95. The Squire had never been so angry with his child as when they last me, he never looked on her so fondly as now.
