Forms: 3 best-, beaste-, beastlich, 4 besteli, beestli, bestly, 4–6 bestely, beestly, 6 beastlye, 6–7 -lie, 6– beastly. [f. BEAST + -LY1.]
† 1. Of the nature of living creatures (including man); animal, natural, ‘carnal.’ Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. xv. 44. It is sowun a beestly [1388 beestli] body, it schal ryse a spiritual body.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 95. The beestly man can not perceyue those thynges yt be godly.
2. Of or pertaining to the lower animals (as opposed to man); merely animal, bestial. arch.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 144. And wailend in his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] bestly steven.
1571. Digges, Pantom., Pref. A iv. Wherein … the nature of man surmounteth beastly kinde.
1608. Gt. Frost, in Arb., Garner, I. 89. Charge of feeding so many beastly mouths.
1615. Bedwell, Arab. Trudg., Barak…. See more of this beastly fable, at the 14. Chapter of Ricold.
1657–83. Evelyn, Hist. Relig. (1850), I. 143. To be appeased by bloody and beastly sacrifices.
1873. Ruskin, Fors Clav., xxv. 27. The ‘breeding’ of a man is what he gets from the Centaur Chiron; the ‘beastly’ part of him in a good sense.
† 3. Resembling a beast in unintelligence; brutish, irrational, without thought. Obs.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 58. Þe bestliche mon þæt ne þencheð nout of God.
1542. Recorde, Gr. Arts (1640), Pref. To bring the people from beastly rage to manly reason.
1563. Homilies, II. Idolatry, III. (1859), 236. More beastly than the Ass.
1598. Drayton, Heroic. Ep., xxii. 150. When it doth passe by beastly ignorance.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., Matt. xxii. 33. The beastly opinion of the mortality of the soul.
4. Resembling a beast in conduct, or in obeying the animal instincts.
c. 1220. Hali Meid., 9. Þat beasteliche gederinge, þat schomelese somming.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., IV. vii. 463. To bacbite in this wise … is a beestly gouernaunce.
1567. Trial Treas., in Hazl., Dodsl., III. 264. The beastly desires of inordinate lust.
1604. Rowlands, Looke to It, 33. Thou filthy fellow of a beastly life.
1709. Swift, Adv. Relig., Wks. 1755, II. I. 105. The beastly vice of drinking to excess.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 May, 4. They are frankly and cynically beastly.
† b. Inhuman, brutally cruel. Obs.
1558. Knox, First Blast (Arb.), 52. Open testimonie of her and their beastlie crueltie.
1587. Turberv., Trag. T. (1837), 71. That blooddie beastlie king.
† c. Unmanly, cowardly. Obs.
1584. T. Hudson, Judith, in Sylvester, Du Bartas (1608), 752. Some brave in words, are beastly of their hands.
5. Unfit for human use or enjoyment; abominable; disgusting, or offensive, especially from dirtiness: applied, by those who use strong language, to anything that offends their tastes.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. i. 229. In the beastliest sence, you are Pompey the great.
1611. Dekker, Roar. Girle, Wks. 1873, III. 159. I thought ’twould bee a beastly iourney.
1763. Mrs. Harris, in Ld. Malmesbury’s Lett., I. 93. We had a beastly walk through the Borough.
1798. Ld. Clare, in Ld. Auckland’s Corr. (1862), III. 395. The pamphlet … is full of beastly blunders committed in the printing-office.
1830. Disraeli, Home Lett. (1885), 3. The steam packet is a beastly conveyance.
1878. Miss Broughton, Cometh up as Flower, xiv. 150. That beastly hole, London.
1883. American, VI. 245. This beastly English weather, you know.
6. Comb. † beastlywise, in a beastly manner.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 33. Bestylywyse, bestialiter.
