a. Now Sc. and arch. (with allusion to ballad use). Also 4 laithly, 5 lathely, 6 laithlie, 7, 9 laidlie, 8 laily. [Northern var. of LOATHLY.] Offensive, hideous, repulsive.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2406 (Gött.). Sore i me drede, Þar we wend bi þis laithly lede.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 491. He … Lete sa lathely a late.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. viii. 100. Wynis gude Anon returnit into laithlie blude.
1567. Gude & Godly Ball. (S.T.S.), 40. Lickand the fylth furth of his laithlie flesche.
a. 1605. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 132. With laidlie language, loud and large.
a. 1800. Laily Worm & Machrel, ii. in Child, Ballads (1884), I. 316/1. She has made me the laily worm, That lies at the fit o the Tree.
1843. Blackw. Mag., LIII. 177. When first the destrier eyed The laidly thing, it swerved aside.
1849. Lytton, K. Arthur, VI. lxvi. The laidliest widows find consoling mates.
1878. W. R. S. Ralston, in 19th Cent., Dec., 992. Her laidly wooer, whose income was better than his looks.
1884. Q. Rev., April, 326. Long black boats, outriggered, and manned, as one might think, by a lot of overgrown black spiders, so long, so lank, so ‘laidlie’ are the crew.
