adv. Obs. [+ -LY2.]
1. Stoutly, strongly, etc.
c. 1200. Ormin, 5520. To fihhtenn stallwurrliȝ Onnȝæn þe flæeshess lusstess.
a. 1340. Hampole, Ps. xxvi. 12. With þe whilke i criyd till þe stalworthly.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 1149. It was … sa strang & stalworthly wallid.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 85. Scho may stakir in þe strete But scho stalworthely stande.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 485. Sum stalwardly steppis ben, with a stout curage.
¶ 2. ? Misused (through association with STALE sb.1) for: Clandestinely, secretly.
The interpretation is not quite certain: the sense may be ‘rigorously,’ ‘resolutely’ (in the second quot. designedly substituted for the ‘secretly’ of the older texts).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4310. Quen þou seis him busk to þe, þou do þe stallworthli to flei. Ibid. (c. 1375), 2517 (Fairf.). He dide to-gedder samyn his men … and stalworþly [v.rr. Cott. dernlik; Gött. priuili] he made ham bide, til agayne þe euen-tide.
c. 1550. Batt. Otterburn, vi. in Child, Ballads, III. 295/2. I rede we ryde to Newe Castell, So styll and stalworthlye.
