Obs. For forms see LITHER a. and -LY2. [f. LITHER a. + -LY2.] In a ‘lither’ manner. a. Wickedly, deceitfully, viciously. b. Badly, meanly, miserably, wretchedly. c. Idly, lazily.
c. 1050. Suppl. Ælfric’s Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 178/27. Pessime, luþerlice.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 4. Thine forðfederes beoð … forloren luðerliche.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1563. Ðin broðer iacob was her nu And toc ðin bliscing liðer-like.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 36. What vrþly haþel … Wolde lyke, if a ladde com lyþerly attyred.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1231. Leþerly as a lyoun he lepes in-to þe prese.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 113. A clerk hadde litherly biset his whyle, But if he koude a Carpenter bigyle.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1263. To unlordly he wyrkez, Thus letherly agaynes law to lede my pople.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xiii. 171. Men say ‘lyght chepe letherly for-yeldys.’
1550. Coverdale, Spir. Perle, xvii. (1588), 167. Earnestly, manfully, and not litherly or faintly.
a. 1583. Arbuthnot, in Pinkerton, Anc. Sc. Poems (1786), 144. Men wes sueir, and durst not steir; But lurkit lidderlie.
1600. Holland, Livy, II. lviii. 83. Doing all things that they did, litherly, slowly, rekelesly and stubbornely.
