1340 Ayenbite (1866) 123 Hope, ouerlyche heȝnesse and ouerliche mageste; Charite, ouerliche [c1450 Bk. Vices & Virtues souereyne; Fr. sovraine] guodnesse.

c1450 (?c1425) St. Mary of Oignies ii. ii, in Anglia (1885) 8 134/32 (MED) Þerfore I leeue alle þat proheme, excepte þis shorte ouerly touchynge.

1597 Bp. J. Hall Virgidemiarum: 1st 3 Bks. iii. iii. 56 The curteous Citizen bad me to his feast, With hollow words, and ouerly request.

a1668 J. Alleine in Life (1838) v. 51 Have not I neglected or been very overly in the reading of God's holy word?

1700 R. Wodrow Early Lett. (1937) 39 My throng of business at this time has made it much more overly than you might have had it in the time of our vacance.

a1769 R. Riccaltoun Notes Galatians in Wks. (1772) III. 258 On an overly view, it may be thought nearly the same sense which way we take it.

1833 Chambers' Edinb. Jrnl. 27 Apr. 97/1 Some day, your wife mentions to you, quite in what Mrs Pringle called an overly way, that she happened to meet her old friend Mrs Nicholson on the street that day.

1857 Misty Morning (2nd Thousand) 155 I was thinkin' mysel' o' giein' a bit speer, in a kind o' canny, overlie sort o' way.

1900 A. Thomson Thornlea 47 I added in an overly way that I would just say [etc.].

1606 Bp. J. Hall Heauen vpon Earth xxvii. 214 Our aunswers are coy and ouerly.

1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts ii. 359 In an overly, and imperious manner tyrannizing over the Church.

1707 J. Humfrey De Justif. Baxteriana Coronis 4 The whole..is so overly, and appears proud, slighting, and does me wrong.

a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1839) IV. 140 The somewhat overly and certainly most ungracious resentments of Baxter.

1895 W. Rye Gloss. Words E. Anglia Overly, arbitrary, tyrannical.

a1903 W. R. Eaton in Eng. Dial. Dict. (at cited word) [Norfolk] Yow ginerally find that little men are werry overly.

OE Wulfstan Sermo ad Anglos (Nero) (1957) 274 Hu hy mid heora synnum swa oferlice swyþe God gegræmedan.

OE Wulfstan Last Days (Hatton) 137 Nu ða yfelan & ða swicelan swa oferlice swyðe brædað on worulde.

1806 Lady Morgan Wild Irish Girl I. ii. 69 Not that I am overly sorry I could not get nobody to take her off my hands at all.

1854 Hamilton (Canada) Gaz. 15 May 2/7 I would be overly liberal if I estimated their number as a couple of Dogans!

1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 21 Yet, caring so, not overly we care To brace and trim for every foolish blast.

1924 B. G. Elliott Automobile Repairing x. 131 An overly rich mixture may be caused by the fuel nozzle valve being open too wide.

1942 Sun (Baltimore) 10 Oct. 10/2 A panting, frantic lady..is..not overly generous after she has stood for a while..shouting for an invisible porter.

1956 D. Karp All Honorable Men 50 She took one with an overly feline movement of her body and looked into his face as she accepted his light.

1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard i. 27 Whoever had covered them hadn't been overly careful about the tubes.

1988 Sunday Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 10 Jan. 13A/1 Avoid getting overly tired.

2003 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 20 Jan. 3 Studies..have found an increased number of SIDS cases when the mother smokes, drinks, becomes overly tired or covers the infant with a duvet.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 373 Ovyrly, superficialiter.

a1564 T. Becon Compar. Lord's Supper & Mass in Prayers (1844) 374 Beholding them as it were by the way, or overly.

1652 W. Blith Eng. Improver Improved ix. 52 If that men drain those Lands wherein they are like to have an interest, throughly, and those the Commoners have, more overly.

1681 in M. P. Brown Suppl. Dict. Decisions Court of Session (1826) II. 276 It is impossible for witnesses that are but overly required, to remember..,not having subscribed the instrument.

1710 R. Ward Life H. More 143 Other things he look'd upon more overly and sparingly, as he saw Occasion.

1744 in H. Paton Session Bk. Wigtown (1934) 611 Overly she said she heard them converse together in her own house.

1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. Overly,..by chance.

1839 P. Buchan in Whistle-Binkie 2nd Ser. 117 He o'erly just speer'd for the men, But he cadgily cracket wi' aunty.

1866 W. Gregor Dial. Banffshire (Philol. Soc.) 121 A hard it overly.

1904 N.E.D. (at cited word) [Roxburghshire] I happened overly to say that I had seen him there.

1923 G. Watson Roxburghshire Word-bk. 226 Hei tell'd iz that owrely.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 43 It then ariseth vp againe to the waters top, and so keepeth ouerlie and aboue the waters highest superficie.

1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) f. 26^v The strawberies looke, to be couerd with straw, layde ouerly trim, vppon crotchis & bowes.

1599 Life Sir T. More in C. Wordsworth Eccl. Biogr. (1853) II. 165 And overlie this worde maliciouslie is in this statute materiall.

1610 Bp. J. Hall Common Apol. against Brownists i. 3 They vse to behold such as they oppose too ouerlie, and not without contempt.

1650 J. Brinsley Antidote 27 To look overly upon others, despising and contemning them.