| 释义 |
happily, adv.|ˈhæpɪlɪ|
Also 4–7 happely.
[f. happy a. + -ly2.]
In a happy manner.
1. By chance; perchance; = haply. arch.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 624 Þe dore closed..to kepe þee with-outen Happily an hundreth wyntre. a1400Gloss. in Rel. Ant. I. 8/2 Fortassis, happylyche. c1400Apol. Loll. 109 Þat appily I be not greuid to denay God. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 493 Such as happily will demaund, what reason this custome..hath. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iv. ii. 57. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 91 Happily..they intended Neptune, or I know not what Devill. 1693Sir T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 432 Happily there may not be so considerable Alterations in the gravity of the Atmosphere far off at Land. 1890I. Taylor Orig. Aryans 18 The Iranian traditions may take us back for three, or happily, for four thousand years.
2. With or by good fortune; fortunately, luckily, successfully. (Now often in weakened sense, expressing that it is well that things are so.)
c1350Will. Palerne 2495 No gom miȝt hem finde, so happiliche þei hem hidde. c1470Henry Wallace v. 986 Schir Jhone the Grayme to thaim come happely. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 266 It chaunced so happely the same time for the Englishmen that [etc.]. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. ii. o, I am glad I came this way so happily. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 421 How happily several members of the Arcadian academy have succeeded. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 110 The case happily stands alone in his biography.
3. With successful or satisfactory adaptation to circumstances; aptly, fitly, appropriately; felicitously.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 168 She happely resteth with him, whom in her lifetime she so earnestly served. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ii. 191 Thou art to wilde, to rude, and bold of voyce, Parts that become thee happily enough. 1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. I.) 341 After those haue bin rightly conceiued, they are as happily to bee expressed. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. i. §20 Some (I will not say how happily) have conjectured, that [etc.]. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. I. p. xiii, Their chronology..coincides very happily with the accounts given by Moses. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 412 Minds..happily constituted for the cultivation of science purely experimental. 1874Geo. Eliot in Life (1885) III. 235 A capital example of your happily-planned publication.
4. With mental pleasure or content. happily ever after: see happy a. 7 b.
In early instances difficult to distinguish from 2 and 3.
1513More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 788 To marry himself wherin he should never happily love. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. i. iii. 57 He writes How happily he liues, how wellbelou'd. 1682Norris Hierocles 134 Which they once happily enjoy'd. 1711Steele Spect. No. 254 ⁋3 A very loving Couple most happily paired. 1871R. Ellis Catullus lxi. 19 So with Mallius happily Happy Julia weddeth. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 397 Those who would live happily should..do no wrong to one another. |