OE tr. Orosius Hist. (Tiber.) (1980) i. viii. 27 His se cyning..mildelice onfeng.

OE tr. Chrodegang of Metz Regula Canonicorum (Corpus Cambr. 191) lxxix. 321 Se God þonne, þe is ure ealra gemæne, gefylle mildelice eowre gewilnunge to his wuldre.

c1175 ( Ælfric Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine Old Eng. Homilies (1993) 43 Nu forȝeaf þe kyng..alne þone mycele ȝylt mildelice þam þeȝene.

a1250 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 60 Ine swete munegunge of ðe soðe wunden þet he o ðe soðe rode mildeliche þolede.

a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2778 Forð he nam to sen witterlike, Hu ðat fier brende milde-like.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 15651 Ful mildli to þam he spak.

c1410 tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 97 Canute..afterwarde dede more myldely [c1400 anon tr. myldloker, myldelokur; L. mitius] wiþ seynt Edmond.

a1500 tr. Thomas à Kempis De Imitatione Christi (Trin. Dublin) (1893) 123 (MED) I owte in euery blamyng & repreuyng to meke myself & suffre myldely.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II v. i. 32 Wilt thou pupill-like Take the correction, mildly kisse the rod. View more context for this quotation

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §375 The Aire once heated..maketh the Flame burne more mildly, and so helpeth the Continuance.

1646 J. Mayne Serm. Unity 13 Pardon the hardnes of the language, I cannot make the Scripture speak mildlyer then it doth.

1743 E. Young Complaint: Night the Fourth 36 Ye Quietists,..Who mildly make An unobtrusive Tender of your Hearts.

1788 C. Smith Emmeline IV. xiv. 330 She could not bear to receive him with haughtiness and coldness; but mildly, and with smiles, returned the questions he put to her on common subjects.

1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxviii. 360 We ought to have treated her mildly, giving small doses of calomel or blue pill.

1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda II. iv. xxviii. 208 The mildly-uttered suggestion.

1912 J. Conrad Secret Sharer ii, in 'Twixt Land & Sea 150 ‘Send a couple of hands to open the two quarter-deck ports,’ I said, mildly.

1952 G. Vidal Judgm. of Paris (1968) ii. vi. 165 ‘You must be joking,’ said Sophia mildly.

1991 C. Dexter Jewel that was Ours xxxiii. 149 Phil Aldrich was still scribbling away on the hotel's notepaper; and for the moment..looking up with his wonted patience and nodding mildly.

1870 Punchinello 1 214 The Chronicle..talks of bobstays and main-top-bowlines and poop-down-hauls in a manner that, to put it mildly, is confusing.

1897 Daily News 20 July 5/1 The Duke is not, to put it mildly, proud, and he cannot apparently be ‘gingered’ into the semblance of a manly attitude.

1939 J. Joyce Finnegans Wake 439 What I'm wondering to myselfwhose for there's a strong tendency, to put it mildly, by making me the medium.

1949 E. E. Cummings Let. 9 July (1969) 191 Thank you much more than kindly for a most (putting it very mildly) luxurious gift.

1972 Listener 6 Apr. 448/3 Suggestions that conditions [on Mars] may periodically change, causing torrential rainfall every 25,000 years or so, are—to put it mildly—highly speculative as yet.

1998 Indianapolis Star 20 Aug. d5/3 To say that Georgetown made the most of its second chance would be putting it mildly, considering the Michigan champions outscored their final three opponents by a combined score of 31–6.

1567 T. Drant tr. Horace Pistles in tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie sig. Evj Then do I hope to drinke Lyuely, and myldlie rellesde wynes.

1784 E. Cullen tr. T. Bergman Physical & Chem. Ess. I. 242 Seltzer water..excites upon the tongue a taste gently salt, and mildly alkaline.

1882 Harper's Mag. Nov. 913/1 He had been obliged more than once to put a mildly restraining pressure upon the somewhat too active gay-mindedness of his venerable junior warden.

1928 V. Delmar Bad Girl i. i. 7 They would toss mildly insulting wisecracks back and forth.

1964 J. Rule Desert of Heart i. 9 Gambling casinos only mildly offended her.

1987 Sunday Express Mag. 10 May 46/3 I would have thought an even mildly intelligent person could cook lunch for eight people in about 20 minutes.

1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 10 524 It may probably happen that those who have the disorder mildly are considered only to have a common cold.

1890 Harper's Mag. Oct. 806/1 He will not go in certain places, he will not pull straight, his mind is evidently affected, he is mildly insane.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 681 The patient became mildly demented.

1922 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 30 698 The serious books on the subject [are] unsatisfying to one afflicted mildly with intellectual curiosity.

1938 Science 172/1 Approximately 30 lambs died or became moribund and were destroyed and a few mildly affected lambs made a complete recovery.

1977 Ann. Internal Med. 86 690/2 Of the 12 patients, only one was mildly anemic (hematocrit 33%).

1994 Denver Post 9 Jan. e6/1 Akiki..suffers from Noonan's Syndrome, a mildly deforming congenital disease.