adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In a fortuitous manner, by chance.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., VI. viii. (1821), 258. This gift [the spirit of prophecy] was not so fortuitously dispensed as to be communicated without any discrimination of persons.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 96.
| Wiles, Trech’ry, Lies, Guilt, Flattery, Deceit, | |
| Like Atoms here fortuitously meet. |
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), II. v. 64. In virtue of these attractions and repulsions some poles are drawn together, some retreat from each other; atom is thus added to atom, and molecule to molecule, not boisterously or fortuitously, but silently and symmetrically, and in accordance with laws more rigid than those which guide a human builder when he places his bricks and stones together.
