positivelyadv.

c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 312 Þat þis preesthode which is apostilhode and..þis preesthode which is hiȝest popehode, as þei ben streiȝt into þe sacramentis positively ordeynyd by crist..weren made of crist..is article of feiþ.

1592 T. Nashe Pierce Penilesse (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. G The Romane Censors if they lighted vppon a fat corpulent man, they straight tooke away his horse, and constrayned him to goe a foote; positiuely concluding, his carkasse was so puft vp with gluttonie or idlenes.

1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares 83 b I positiuely affirme it [sc. the Plague] is for sinne.

1642 J. Howell Instr. Forreine Travell x. 125 Some of the approvedst Antiquaries positively hold the Originall Language of the Celtæ..to be Welsh.

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 90 I do not pretend to pass my own Judgment, or to determin positively on either side.

1730 in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 121 You would not so positively affirm this fact..without knowing the certain truth.

1757 G. G. Beekman Let. 12 Sept. (1956) 305 His second Confirms the first and Positively Orders me to have the seed in Readiness Against the Cullodons Arrivel on whome I was Ordered to Ship it.

1800 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 4 139 Had he positively contradicted my assertion, I could have answered and confuted him in one word.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 53 A large body of Protestants..regarded prelacy as positively unlawful.

1919 J. Conrad Arrow of Gold i. ii I am telling you this positively because she has told me the tale herself. What better authority can you have?

1988 J. Heller Picture This ii. 22 Not until 1917, one year after the Ruffo archives were opened, could the work be positively identified as the one commissioned from Rembrandt.

2001 Oxoniensia 65 321 The similarity of sheep and goat bones often poses difficulties in identification, and since no goat bones were positively identified in the assemblage all caprine bones are listed as sheep.

1597 F. Bacon Of Coulers Good & Euill f. 24^v, in Ess. The good or euil..may be esteemed good or euil comparatiuely and not positiuely or simply.

1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest IV. xviii. 220 The original town occupied the end of a positively small, but in that flat region, considerable, ridge of higher ground overlooking the river at its feet.

1649 V. Powell God Father Glorified 11 The second way he glorified God, was positively, and he did this also two wayes. By his words, and by his works.

1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. 309 Prepositions..signifying some respect of Cause, Place, Time, or other circumstance either Positively or Privatively.

1683 D. A. Whole Art Converse 116 They are rather not civil than positively incivil.

1776 T. Paine Common Sense i. 1 Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively, by uniting our affections; the latter negatively, by restraining our vices.

1875 Jrnl. Mental Sci. 21 225 There is..positively slightly increased automatic action (delusions, illusions, etc.).

1961 C. E. Vincent Unmarried Mothers x. 254 Her inability to resolve these various identity crises positively.

1988 M. Moorcock Mother London ii. 97 He should..try to think more positively.

1999 Healing Arts Festival 1999 Programme (back cover) Transform your home, rearranging areas of stagnant energy to create an environment where the increased flow of energy can positively affect your health, career, love life and spiritual life.

1747 B. Franklin Let. 1 Sept. in Exper. & Observ. Electr. (1751) 15 Hence have arisen some new terms among us; we say, B, (and bodies like circumstanced) is electrised positively; A, negatively. Or rather, B is electrised plus; A, minus.

1771 Philos. Trans. 1770 (Royal Soc.) 60 197 The result was invariably the same..whether the jar was charged positively or negatively.

1832 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) II. Electricity ii. §49. 13 Whenever they [sc. bodies] contain a quantity of fluid greater than this, they are said to be positively electrified, or to have positive electricity.

1873 J. C. Maxwell Treat. Electr. & Magnetism I. 46 A positively electrified surface.

1956 G. Thomson Atom (ed. 5) i. 6 A proton has the same kind of charge as a positively charged body.

1984 A. C. Duxbury & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans iv. 134 The two positively charged hydrogen atoms repel each other.

a1816 R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal (rev. ed.) i. i, in Wks. (1821) II. 25 So, Maria, you see your lover pursues you; positively you sha'n't escape.

1823 J. Foster Let. 26 Feb. in Life & Corr. J. Foster (1846) II. 51 This edition has undergone positively the last revisal.

1859 J. W. Carlyle Lett. (1883) III. 2 Positively, it took away my breath.

1886 W. J. Tucker Life E. Europe 159 His Excellency positively hates the sight of him.

1922 H. Walpole Cathedral ii. ii. 188 She hasn't an idea in her head. I don't believe that she knows it's Jubilee Year. Positively!

1942 E. Partridge Usage & Abusage 4/2 Absolutely and positively... In slang their meaning is yes (popularized by a famous vaudeville duet between ‘Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Sheehan’).

1988 A. Lurie Truth about Lorin Jones iii. 51 He positively bent over backwards.

1833 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 123 596 If we suppose two similar surfaces with the same number of quiescent lines to be superposed, and both to vibrate in concurrence, i.e. both either positively or negatively, they will mutually assist each other's effects.

1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 677 In the ivy..the internodes are positively heliotropic when young, but negatively when old before growth ceases.

1922 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 36 723 The farm price of beans..seems to have been positively correlated with the California yield during the past eight seasons.

1965 J. D. Carthy Behaviour of Arthropods ix. 122 From this sort of experiment Hirsch concluded that it is incorrect to state that, as a species, D. melanogaster is positively or negatively geotactic.

1967 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 113 763/1 Both populations showed positively sloped biphasic curves.

1993 Brit. Jrnl. Surg. 80 292/2 IL-6 levels correlate positively with mortality rates in patients with sepsis.