Undoubtedly

adv. [UN-¹ 11, 5 b; cf. prec.]

  1.  Without or beyond any doubt; indubitably, assuredly, certainly.

a. 1500[?].  Chester Pl., xiii. 180. Our sonne he is,… And blynde was borne undowtedlye.

1551.  T. Wilson, Logike (1580), 37. By searchyng euery borough he shall haue his purpose vndoubtedly.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xxxv. 256 b. They (quoth he) are vndoubtedly condemned by nature.

1652.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, II. i. § 3. The Records under the name of Moses were undoubtedly his.

176[?].  Wilkes, Corr. (1805), III. 13. This is undoubtedly the handsomest compliment that has been paid to his present majesty.

1838.  G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., I. 164. He was, however, undoubtedly a man of much courage.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., iii. § 6 (1882), 147. The influence which the Friars undoubtedly exerted.

  b.  Used to introduce a sentence.

1521.  Wolsey, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., VI. 85. And ondowgtydly, by all apparance, He shall prove a very wyse man.

1596.  Edward III., II. ii. 20. Vndoubtedly, then, some thing is a misse.

1663.  Cowley, Cutter Coleman-St., II. vii. Undoubtedly they had a Hand in’t.

1765.  Museum Rust., IV. 185. Undoubtedly the farmers will think the charges of this feed too great.

1834.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., I. i. 2. Undoubtedly He may prescribe the terms on which He will give it.

1878.  Seeley, Stein, II. 160. Undoubtedly this refusal was honourable to him.

  † 2.  In a manner that removes or rejects all doubt; positively, decidedly. Obs.

1513.  Life Henry V. (1911), 182. When this goodly and Christian Kinge was vndoubtedly acertained of his phisicions that the time of his resolucion approached.

1584.  R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., III. xix. 56. They affirme undoubtedlie, that the divell plaieth Succubus to the man.

1638.  R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 36. I … assure you most undoubtedly, that [etc.].

1653.  H. More, Antid. Ath., I. ii. § 3. The thing that it doth thus resolvedly and undoubtedly reject.