adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In a swimming manner.
1. With easy smooth progress; smoothly and without impediment; with uninterrupted success or prosperity. † In early use, esp. with bear, carry: With conspicuous success, with éclat.
1622. Fletcher & Mass., Prophetess, I. iii. Max. Can such a Rascal as thou art, hope for honour?… Geta. Yes, and bear it too, And bear it swimmingly.
1654. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 51. Lord Percey carried himselfe swimmingly and said more for then against the Chancelor.
1668. Etheredge, She wou’d if She cou’d, I. i.
| Prithee, let us dine together to day, | |
| And be swimmingly merry, but with all Secrecy. |
1678. Otway, Friendship in F., I. i. He never dreams how swimmingly his own Affairs are manag’d at home.
1696. Vanbrugh, Relapse, IV. i. So, matters go swimmingly.
1754. Warburton, in W. & Hurd’s Lett. (1809), 186. Only this last year or two I was going swimmingly on. I have now struck upon a rock.
1824. Lady Granville, Lett., 14 March (1894), I. 266. The interview went off very swimmingly.
1844. Macaulay, in Trevelyan, Life & Lett. (1876), II. x. 152. The article on Chatham goes on swimmingly.
1893. Forbes-Mitchell, Remin. Gt. Mutiny, 155. Everything went swimmingly with the prosecution.
2. With a smooth gliding movement.
1745. Gentl. Mag., July, 384/2. Like fluttering angels they swimmingly move.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), 37. Perhaps the reality did not appear quite so swimmingly elegant … as the fancy of the thing [sc. a rustic dance] had been.
1842. Browning, Waring, I. iv. E’en so, swimmingly appears, Through one’s after-supper musings, Some lost Lady of old years.
