villainly
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
Adjective edit
villainly (comparative more villainly, superlative most villainly)
- Characteristic of a villain.
- 1853, Robert Bigsby, Ombo. A Dramatic Romance, in Twelve Acts., London: Edward T. Whitfield; Derby: Richard Keene, act IV, scene 4, page 93:
- By the ox of St. Luke, thou idle, cogging knave—thou rascally, miscreant spy, if ever I catch thee dogging my footsteps, by day or night, or concerning thyself in any way about act of mine, I will think no more of drawing my dagger across thy villainly throat, than I would of slicing a melon or cucumber at my luncheon.
- 1860 January 19, John Herbert Claiborne, “Politics of the Ante-Bellum Period”, in Seventy-Five Years in Old Virginia with Some Account of the Life of the Author and Some History of the People Amongst Whom His Lot Was Cast,—Their Character, Their Condition, and Their Conduct Before the War, During the War and After the War, New York, N.Y., Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, published 1904, page 149:
- And though he has paid the penalty of his crime with his worthless life, yet many of his compeers in villainly adventure still live, and his daring and sworn associates are scattered throughout the northern portion of this land;
- 1951, W. H. S. Jones, The Story of St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., page 153:
- Shirley’s is a world of young lovers, delightfully protesting their eternal constancy, of villainly villains, of unscrupulous servants, and of “humour” characters such as seize and transport the imagination: […]
- 1969 October, The Telegraph, quotee, Musical America, published 1970, page 166:
- Strikingly effective performance as the villainly Vitellia…
- 1987, Sara Banerji, chapter 14, in The Wedding of Jayanthi Mandel, Bloomsbury Reader, published 2012, →ISBN:
- During the hours the villainly Mandel Pukur fellows kept us standing I became exceedingly thirsty, and also hungry, but gradually the need to urinate became of even more pressing urgency.
- 1988, Eleventh IAHA Conference: Session VIII (A, B, and C), page 32:
- Emphases were given to the description of the actors' facial features and expression to fit the characters into righteous, moral and energetic types, as contrasted with the landlords' villainly physical appearance.
- 1989, Julia Eccleshare, Children’s Books of the Year, London: Andersen Press, →ISBN, page 48:
- Her pastiche of a villainly adventure is far more exciting than most originals in the genre.
- 2001, Ulf Malm, Dolssor Conina: Lust, the Bawdy, and Obscenity in Medieval Occitan and Galician-Portuguese Troubadour Poetry and Latin Secular Love Song, Uppsala, →ISBN, page 41:
- Le roman de la rose, ed. A. Strubel, 2097 ff: “See to it that you will not use these dirty and vulgar words, and also see to it that you don’t open your mouth to utter villainly things. I do not consider him courtly who calls the dirty and ugly by name.”
- 2009, T. A. Barron, “The Blight”, in Merlin Book 7: Doomraga’s Revenge, Puffin Books, published 2011, →ISBN:
- Take that, you villainly villain!
- 2011, Becky Thacker, Faithful Unto Death, Ann Arbor, Mich.: the University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, pages 19–20:
- In these glorious envisionings, the ministerial Brainard, effete and villainly, had looked on gloomily from his place at the foot of the table, next to the kitchen maid. […] Brainard—it had to be Brainard, Henry knew, not effete and villainly at all, but a perfectly ordinary fellow—[…]
Synonyms edit
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English vilenly; equivalent to villain + -ly.
Adverb edit
villainly (comparative more villainly, superlative most villainly)
- In the manner of a villain.
- c. 1500, “How Uryan & Guyon tooke leue of theire moder Melusyne and entred theire ship”, in A. K. Donald, editor, Melusine. Compiled (1382-1394 A.D.) by Jean d’Arras; Englisht about 1500. Edited from a Unique Manuscript in the Library of the British Museum, part I (Text, Notes, and Glossary), London: Publisht for the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., published 1895, page lines 26–35, page 130:
- And whan they vnderstode this they walked fast, & cam nigħ to the bridge, and sawe thre cristen that were 28 ouerthrawen on the bridge by strokkes of speerys. ‘Fourth,’ said then one of them, ‘we tary to longe / perceyue you not how this Dogges oppressen vylaynly these valyaunt & worthy crystens?’ / and anone they 32 bended þeir crosbowes, & shot ałł ones / and ouerthrewe doun on the bridge fro theire horses with that first shotte xxiiti paynemys.
- a. 1560, Virgill, Thomas Phaër, transl., “The Ninth Booke of the Aeneidos of Uirgil”, in The Whole .xii. Bookes of the Æneidos of Virgill, London: […] Wyllyam How, for Abraham Veale, published 1573:
- My fortune them withstands, and I lykewyse may destnies vouche / To kyl that cursyd brood, and for my spouse vproote them quyte. / Nor not alone this grief doth Agamemnons kindred byte: / Nor Greeks haue onely cause for wedlock spoyle them selfs to arme. Yet had it bin ynough to stroy them ones, if but one harme / Suffized had their sinne, and not with spyte all female kinds / Thus villaynly disdain? what? doth this half trench puff their mynds?
- 1793, J[ames] C[artwright] Cross, The Insolvent Debtor: A Simple Pathetic Tale, Founded on Facts. To Which Is Added, a Small Collection of Miscellaneous Poetry., Salisbury: Printed for […], page 4:
- Law, boaſts it’s pillars upright, liberal, great! Abilities, enhanc’d by virtues rare! Who villainly hurl headlong from it’s ſeat, / And ſuffering merit make their ſpecial care.
- 1936, Arthur Stanley, The Testament of Man: An Anthology of the Spirit, Victor Gollancz, page 249:
- Ah, noble king, for God’s sake refrain your courage, ye have the name of sovereign noblesse, therefore now do not a thing that should blemish your renown, not to give cause to some to speak of you villainly.
- 1960, Impresiones de un viajero: viaje por varios paises del Oriente, Europa, Tierra Santa y Norteamerica, 1958, Jaro, Iloilo City: Catholic Publishing House, page 206:
- This divine site of the nativity has been villainly usurped by the schismatic Greeks, and now the Catholic priest is forbidden to say Mass thereat.
- 2004, 歌舞伎公演, 国立劇場, page 67:
- […] and the characters around the handsome samurai Nagoya Sanza and his rival, the villainly attractive Fuwa Banzaemon.
- 2007, N. N. Shneidman, Double Vision: The Jew in Post-Soviet Russian Literature (1991-2006), Mosaic Press, →ISBN, page 63:
- You, our sons, appear to be Russian people, but you serve the Yids. The same Yids who villainly destroyed His Majesty the Emperor, together with the Empress, their innocent daughters, and the adolescent heir to the throne.
- 2008, Marcel D. Chukwubueze Ugwumadu, The Fiendish Triangle, Cel-Bez & Co. Publishers, →ISBN, page 1:
- “You are a villain for villainly were you created. To torment, inflict pains, sorrows, rival and attack great destinies is your lot”, he croaked, paused and bellowed.”
- 2014, Joseph J. Bailey, “Failure is NOT the Only Option”, in Nemesis: A Good Guide for Bad Guys: Being an Exceedingly Practical Manual to Achieving Eminence as an Archenemy, Villain, Evil Overlord, & Antihero, 2nd edition, →ISBN:
- Your latest diabolical plan, a magnum opus of sheer terror and villainly villainous villainy, has been thwarted by a motley ragtag band of untrained and untried castoffs including an orphan, a luckless thief, and a prince whose parents perished at your hand decades ago.