probablyadv.

c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 76 (MED) More þan oon beyng..may þere not be..as resoun afore in þis book bi his natural liȝt haþ probabili provid.

1471 in T. Rymer Fœdera (1710) XI. 710 (MED) No Man shall mowe probably hereafter pretend Ignorance in this Partie by any maner colour.

1535 T. Starkey Let. in Eng. in Reign Henry VIII (1878) i. p. xxx You wrote so probably that hyt put me in a feare of daungerys to come.

1552 T. Wilson Rule of Reason (rev. ed.) sig. Bij Logique is an arte to reason probably, on bothe partes, of all matters that bee put furth, so farre as the nature of euery thyng can beare.

1572 J. Jones Bathes of Bathes Ayde Ep. Ded. 3 The first of these bookes probablie proueth the discent of Bladud.

1604 T. Wright Passions of Minde (new ed.) v. §2. 168 In such an obstruse difficultie, he that speaketh most apparently and probably, saith the best.

1678 T. Hobbes Decameron Physiologicum viii. 100 This your Hypothesis..by which you have so probably salved the Problem of Gravity.

1752 N.Y. Gaz. Revived in Weekly Post-boy 25 May 3/1 Run away..from Elias Degrushe, of this City, Rope-maker..one named Richard Poole, a West Countryman... He may probably pass for a Rope-maker.

1774 O. Goldsmith Grecian Hist. I. ix. 342 With a party of thirty men only, as Nepos says; but, as Xenophon more probably says, of near seventy.

1823 J. Badcock Domest. Amusem. 28 More than he could probably hope to make by any transaction in the Alley.

1874 A. Trollope Phineas Redux II. vi. 50 Phineas Finn had himself been once engaged with garotters..and had since armed himself, thinking more probably of the thing which he had happened to see than men do who had only heard of it.

1891 W. D. Howells Crit. & Fiction xxvi. 167 It deals more probably with character to this end than its English cousin, the Christmas story, does. It is not so improbable that a man should leave off being a drunkard on Thanksgiving, as that he should leave off being a curmudgeon on Christmas.

1909 W. Bateson Mendel's Princ. Heredity (new ed.) xii. 213 The case is more probably to be regarded as a homoeotic variation of the digits into the likeness of the hallux and pollex.

1600 R. Chambers Palestina 121 Three princes..came out of the East parts at this time vnto Bethleem of Iuda, which iourney they did the more willingly take, because probablie their ancestors were also Iewes.

1613 A. Sherley Relation Trav. Persia 101 Now that we haue iudged of all, we must resolue..of that which is probabliest best.

1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine iii. f. 394 Probably there were some wells within the verge of the Temple.

1692 O. Walker Greek & Rom. Hist. 86 Secespita, an Hatchet, probabilier a Knife, to kill the Beast.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 5 A Source, from whence those waters of bitterness..have..probably flowed.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xii. xiv. 310 Our Readers will probably be divided in their Opinions concerning this Action; some may applaud it perhaps as an Act of extraordinary Humanity. View more context for this quotation

a1817 J. Austen Lady Susan , in Wks. (1954) VI. xxv. 294 I have also an idea of being soon in Town, & whatever may be my determination as to the rest, I shall probably put that project in execution.

1860 M. F. Maury Physical Geogr. Sea (ed. 8) xii. §551 The River Tigris is probably evaporated from the upper half of this sea by these winds.

1882 Med. Temp. Jrnl. 1 101 Probably both causes operate to account for the failure to perceive the difference.

a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xxv. 558 Is she happy? I do not know. I do not think she knows. Probably she is.

1988 V. Bramwell Woman Bk. Beauty & Health vii. 114 We've probably all come across someone who doesn't keep their personal hygiene in check.

2005 N.Y. Times Mag. 2 Oct. (From Cause to Cure Suppl.) 18/1 (advt.) Research has shown that if no cancer cells are found in the sentinel node, there are probably no cancer cells in the other lymph nodes.