adv. Forms: see STERN a. and -LY2. In a stern manner (see the senses of the adj.); with sternness of temper, aspect, utterance, etc.; severely, harshly, unbendingly; † fiercely, cruelly; † loudly.

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c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxviii. 197. Ac he him sona ondwyrde, & him suiðe stiernlice stierde.

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c. 1205.  Lay., 25240. Þa wes Arðures hired sturneliche awraððed.

3

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 183. A mous … Stroke forth sternly and stode biforn hem alle.

4

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 408 (Pepys MS.). A piler … Of yren wrought full sternely [Bodl. sturnelye, Fairf. sturmely]. Ibid. (c. 1385), L. G. W., 239. For sternely on me he gan beholde.

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1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. xii. (Tollemache MS.). Þese Goothes were sternely [1495 cruelly] killid.

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a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 745. Sterynly thay songene [said of the sailors of a fleet].

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1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 37. He … strooke at him so sternely, that he made An open passage through his riven brest.

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1615.  Chapman, Odyss., IX. 402. No mountaine Lion tore Two Lambs so sternly.

9

1671.  Milton, P. R., I. 406. To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied.

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a. 1771.  Gray, Dante, 56. Father, why, why do you gaze so sternly?

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1835.  Hawthorne, Tales & Sk., Dr. Bullivant (1879), 136. We see the mountains rising sternly and with frozen summits up to heaven.

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1846.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 147. He was sternly told that his defence was not satisfactory.

13

1855.  Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xxv. I must be just, and sternly just, to myself, even if God be indulgent.

14

1911.  Q. Rev., July, 123. The Mildmay household was sternly Puritan.

15

  Comb.  1608.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. Decay, 1114. Sternly-valiant to the stubborn-stout.

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1808.  Wordsw., George & Sarah Green, 17. Those sternly-featured hills. Ibid. (1814), Excurs., VI. 853. A sternly-broken vow.

17