Wiktionary

confusedly

English edit

WOTD – 3 December 2019

Etymology edit

From confused +‎ -ly.[1]

Pronunciation edit

Adverb edit

confusedly (comparative more confusedly, superlative most confusedly)

  1. In a confused manner.
    Synonyms: bewilderedly, mingledly, puzzledly
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 97, column 1:
      He wanted Pikes to ſet before his Archers: / Inſtead whereof, ſharpe Stakes pluckt out of Hedges / They pitched in the ground confuſedly, / To keepe the Horſemen off, from breaking in.
    • 1614–1616, R. C., “Scribimus indocti doctique epigrammata passim”, in J[oseph] M[eadows] Cowper, editor, The Times’ Whistle: Or A Newe Daunce of Seven Satires, and Other Poems: [...] Now First Edited from MS. Y. 8. 3. in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral; […], London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co., […], published 1871, →OCLC, part II (Certaine Poems, Comprising Things Naturall, Morrall, & Theologicall), page 132, lines 1–7:
      Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson] they say 's turned Epigrammatist, / Soe think not I, believe it they that list. / Peruse his booke, thou shalt not find a dram / Of witt befitting a true Epigram. / Perhaps some scraps of play-bookes thou maist see, / Collected heer & there confusedlie, / Which piece his broken stuffe; if thou but note, / Iust like soe many patches on a cote.
    • 1642, John Spalding, edited by James Skene, The History of the Troubles and Memorable Transactions in Scotland and England, from M.DC.XXIV. to M.DC.XLV. [...] In Two Volumes (Publications; no. 25), volume II, printed at Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club; printed by Ballantyne and Co., published 1829, page 51:
      Now ye have the Kingis letter and this ſupplicatioun both coppeit; read and conſidder both the ane and the uther, with the Counſallis anſuer ſent to the ſaid ſupplicatioun, quhilk is ſo ſtrangelie and confuſedlie ſet down that I can not wnderſtand the ſamen perfectlie weill.
    • 1643 December 17, R. Baylie [i.e., Robert Baillie], “[Letter to Mr. William Spang, 7 December 1643 [Julian calendar]]”, in The Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, A.M. Principal of the University of Glasgow. M.DC.XXXVII.–M.DC.LXII. In Three Volumes (Publications; no. 73), volume II, Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club; [printed by Alexander Lawrie & Co. […]], published 1841, →OCLC, pages 108–109:
      After the prayer, Mr. Byfield the ſcribe, reads the propoſition and the Scriptures, whereupon the Aſſemblie debates in a moſt grave and orderlie way. No man is called up to ſpeak; bot who ſtands up of his own accord, he ſpeaks ſo long as he will without interruption. If two or three ſtand up at once, then the divines confuſedlie calls on his name whom they deſyre to hear firſt: On whom the loudeſt and manieſt voices calls, he ſpeaks.
    • 1648, Robert Herrick, “[Amatory Odes.] Delight in Disorder.”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC; republished as Henry G. Clarke, editor, Hesperides, or Works both Human and Divine, volume I, London: H. G. Clarke and Co., […], 1844, →OCLC, page 55:
      A sweet disorder in the dress / Kindles in clothes a wantonness; / [...] / A cuff neglectful, and thereby / Ribbons to flow confusedly; / [...] Do more bewitch me, than when art / Is too precise in every part.
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 911–914:
      The womb of Nature, and perhaps her Grave, / Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, / But all theſe in their pregnant cauſes mixt / Confus’dly, and which thus muſt ever fight, [...]
    • 1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter XXIII, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 176:
      There were women weeping around—I hung over it, and joined my sad tears to theirs—all this time no distinct idea presented itself to my mind; but my thoughts rambled to various subjects, reflecting confusedly on my misfortunes, and their cause.
    • 1860, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Charity in Full-dress”, in The Mill on the Floss […], volume III, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI (The Great Temptation), pages 141–142:
      She heard confusedly the busy, indifferent voices around her, and wished her mind could flow into that easy, babbling current.
    • 1919 March, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “Her Praise”, in The Wild Swans at Coole, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 48:
      And though I have turned the talk by hook or crook / Until her praise should be the uppermost theme, / A woman spoke of some new tale she had read, / A man confusedly in a half dream / As though some other name ran in his head.

Alternative forms edit

Translations edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ “confusedly, adv.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1891; “confusedly, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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