[f. BIG a. + -LY2.]
† 1. With great force or violence; firmly, strongly, violently. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., C. 321. Þe barrez of vche a bonk ful bigly me haldes.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XIV. 6035. Knyt hom with cables … And bound hom full bigly on hor best wise.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur (1816), I. 416. So roughly and so bigly, that there was not one that might withstand him.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., lxxviii. 140. A serius argument: Whether I should liue or die, was biglie bent.
2. Loudly, boastfully, haughtily, pompously.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 397/1. And bereth it out bigly wt shameles deuelyshe heresie.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 104. Goliah thought bigly of himself.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvi. 218. Oftentimes Authoritie lookes biglier than a Bull.
1741. Johnson, Debates in Parl. (1787), II. 246. Talking bigly, indeed, of vindicating foreign rights.
1846. Landor, Exam. Shaks., Wks. II. 299. He spoke as bigly and fiercely as a soaken yeoman at an election feast.
