mayhapadv.

1533 J. Heywood Play of Wether sig. Ciiii^v May happe I wyll thynke on you when you be gone.

a1536 Interl. Beauty & Good Prop. Women A v May hap ye stomble Quod he on the trewth, as many one doth.

1575 W. Stevenson Gammer Gurtons Nedle v. ii. sig. Ei^v There is a thing, you know not on may hap.

1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 10 To make it likely..that the doctrine of atoms is not wound up in those darknesses that some mens understandings have may-hap over-weened.

1695 W. Congreve Love for Love iii. xv A Sailor will be honest, thof mayhap he has never a Penny of Money in his Pocket.

1696 M. Pix Spanish Wives Prol. sig. A3 Mayhaps 'twou'd make them stink.

1706 S. Centlivre Basset-table iv. i. 44 Sir Richard, mehap a Woman may not like me.

1718 P. Motteux Don Quixote (1733) III. 67 I'll trust no longer to Rewards, that mayhaps may come late, and mayhaps not at all.

1792 J. Byng Diary 30 June in Torrington Diaries (1936) III. 136 Oats keep deadly low—tho' mayhap the weather may meak a change for the better.

1814 W. Scott Waverley III. xix. 293 The very footmen sometimes grinned too broadly, the maid-servants giggled mayhap too loud. View more context for this quotation

1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge lxxii. 357 Mayhap..she's hungry.

1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise: Pt. III 37 Or hast thou mayhap wandered wide?

1900 Yorks. Archæol. Jrnl. 15 300 Pins or hooks, mayhap for hanging curtains from.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xiii. [Nausicaa] 342 Then mayhap he would embrace her gently..and love her, his ownest girlie, for herself alone.

1961 W. P. Keller Canada's Wild Glory ii. 88 When in my roadside bed-roll I was the only human for mayhap a dozen miles.

1989 New Scientist 25 Feb. 66/4 He himself describes his writing as not so much ‘scientific’ as ‘a work of love’. Mayhap, but please don't expect it all to be instantly accessible.