gratuitouslyadv.

1717 R. Bentley Serm. before King George 6 Gratuitously given us by the good-will of our Maker.

1773 J. Erskine Inst. Law Scotl. I. ii. iii. §25. 190 He who makes over a subject gratuitously is understood to transfer it barely as it was vested in himself when he made the grant.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. xi. 187 The distributions of corn..frequently made to the people, either gratuitously, or at a very low price. View more context for this quotation

1804 W. Tennant Indian Recreat. (ed. 2) I. 70 The children of such as have died..are admitted gratuitously into this school.

1867 S. Smiles Huguenots Eng. & Ireland i. 19 The bishop also distributed the four Gospels gratuitously among the poor.

1697 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris 44 But there is a..learned Greek Professor..who, after he has asserted the credit of Euripides's Letters, gratuitously undertakes to apologize for These too, about this matter of the Dialect.

1774 S. Hallifax Anal. Rom. Civil Law Pref. xvi Those, who apply to the study of the Common Law, often boast, and sometimes gratuitously enough, of this distinction.

1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 385 The vast size of the most ancient species of fish he ascribes to the great heat which he gratuitously supposes the sea to have originally possessed.

1845 Ld. Houghton Let. 25 Dec. in T. W. Reid Life Ld. Houghton (1890) I. viii. 359 It is assumed (I think gratuitously) that Peel is going to repeal the Corn Laws.

1875 E. White Life in Christ (1878) i. ii. 14 The most gratuitously perverse misinterpretations.

1880 J. McCarthy Hist. our Own Times IV. xlviii. 22 Gratuitously offensive.