artfullyadv.

1608 R. Tofte tr. L. Ariosto Satyres vi. 93 With his letters first he should be brought Before the Pope: which spoken artfully, He should haue his dispatch with breuity.

1677 J. Dryden Authors Apol. Heroique Poetry in State Innocence Pref. sig. b3 The boldest strokes of Poetry, when they are manag'd Artfully, are those which most delight the Reader.

1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 33. ⁋10 Colours artfully spread upon Canvas may entertain the eye.

1776 W. J. Mickle in tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad Introd. 134 In this unborrowing sameness, he artfully interweaves the history of Portugal.

1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton Rienzi II. iii. ii. 41 Brightly polished, and artfully flexile armour.

1873 Times 5 Dec. 4/4 His character is very original, and yet is so artfully finished as to be quite natural in spite of its inconsistencies.

1908 London Opinion 22 Aug. 362/2 She was large, plumply built, with grey hair artfully pompadoured and undulated.

1970 N. Pevsner Cambridgeshire (Buildings of Eng.) (ed. 2) 52 Two portrait medallions, two putti, and very artfully carved big garlands are the chief motifs.

2005 Metro 24 May (London ed.) 24/3 Post-rock might be too limited a term for a band which has artfully thrown together everything from Krautrock and dub, to complex jazz rhythms and ambient noise.

1631 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlewoman 114 Many desire to appeare most to the eye, what they are least in heart. They haue learned artfully to gull the world with apparances.

1675 E. Settle Love & Revenge iii. ii. 34 His Mistress's Injuries, and Fathers Murder Which I have artfully made the Kings Guilt, Will raise a fire within him Too hot and fierce to smother.

1709 Brit. Apollo 23–25 Nov. Three Thornbacks..artfully finger'd me out of five Guineas.

1744 H. Walpole Let. 15 Mar. in Lett. to H. Mann (1833) I. 356 The French fled shamefully; that was, I suppose, designedly and artfully.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 63 In these fatal follies the King was artfully encouraged.

1870 Times 17 Jan. 4/3 Whether he was a detective artfully introduced among the confederates, or whether he betrayed the associates in the plot of his own accord, is not known.

1908 R. Lodge in Cambr. Mod. Hist. V. xii. 358 Meanwhile Kara Mustafa was deceiving Caprara by artfully spaced-out interviews.

1963 F. C. Crews Pooh Perplex 22 Rabbit, having deceitfully offered Pooh admittance to sample his overstocked larder, artfully traps his victim in the doorway and exploits him as an unsalaried towel rack for an entire week.

2001 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 21 June 82/2 While usually artfully concealed, the machinery of forced consensus is apparent in the pest-protected plant report.