superstitiouslyadv.

1531 T. Elyot Boke named Gouernour iii. xxi. sig. fiij^v The consideration is wonder full excellent, and to be..supersticiously obserued.

1531 G. Joye tr. Prophete Isaye ii. sig. B.4 But doiste thou (o man) faldowne befo^r these Idols & worshipest them? ye, & y^t so supersticiously, so steffly, y^t no thinge may plucke y^e frome them?

1535 G. Joye Apol. Tindale sig. E.viii Here thou seist whother Tin[dale] is brought for so supersticyously steking to onely one significacion of this worde Resurrectio.

1659 H. Hammond Paraphr. & Annot. Psalms (xxxi. 6 Annot.) 169/1 That heathen men..are..wont to apply themselves..to false Gods..observing their responses most superstitiously.

1675 T. Hobbes in tr. Homer Odysses To Rdr. sig. B^v A fault proper to Translators, when they hold themselves too superstitiously to their Authors words.

1725 I. Watts Logick iv. i Neither of these two Methods should be too scrupulously and superstitiously pursued.

1788 R. Burns Let. 25 Mar. (1985) I. 267 It seems the Supervisor in Ayr, who must examine me, is superstitiously strict.

1817 J. Bentham Chrestomathia Pt. II 292 For division, the dichotomous..mode is most to be commended..: but it ought not to be every where hunted out too superstitiously and anxiously.

1823 I. D'Israeli Curiosities of Lit. 2nd Ser. I. 398 But we have puritans or precisians of English, superstitiously nice!

1922 B. Willey Tendencies in Renaissance Literary Theory ii. ii. 29 The alternation of masculine and feminine couplets is a good principle, if not superstitiously followed.

2000 D. J. Zerbolio in M. E. Ware & D. E. Johnson Handbk. Demonstrations & Activities in Teaching Psychol. (ed. 2) I. iii. 76/2 Students begin to see the conceptual logic.., rather than restricting themselves to learning a series of superstitiously performed plug and chug procedures.

1533 T. Paynell tr. U. von Hutten De Morbo Gallico i. f. 1^v At the fyrste rysynge therof some men supersticiously [L. superstitio] named it [sc. the frenche pockes] meuyn syckenes of the name (I know not) of what saynt.

1552 Abp. J. Hamilton Catech. i. viii. f. 21^v To defend thair self..aganis fyre, watter, swerd,..with certene takinnis or writingis supersticiously.

1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. (1634) i. xi. 37 Because God will not be worshipped superstitiouslie, therefore whatsoever is given to idols is taken from him.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) iii. iii. 39 Dreames, are toyes, Yet for this once, yea superstitiously, I will be squar'd by this. View more context for this quotation

1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. vi. 207 The common people superstitiously beleive, that tis very dangerous to break a bough from it.

1743 T. Stackhouse Compl. Body Speculative & Pract. Divinity (ed. 3) vi. 245 If some wise Men..not superstitiously, but discreetly do think, that prodigious Signs from Heaven, or on Earth are not to be neglected [etc.].

1767 ‘Coriat Junior’ Another Traveller! I. 375 The superstitiously-zealous in their own way, they would shew like a company of saints.

1809 Q. Rev. Nov. 298 The character..of this people..in many points resembles that of the West Indian Creole;—gentle, indolent, outwardly irreligious, and in private superstitiously observant of every tittle of the ordinances of their church.

1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. xi. 201 But that neither scene nor season favoured fear, I should have been superstitiously afraid.

1884 P. Schaff et al. Relig. Encycl. III. 2268 Friday is superstitiously held to be an unlucky day.

1929 Times 12 Apr. 17/6 I myself have always been superstitiously affected by birds.

1968 A. Stevens tr. E. de Queiroz Illustrious House Ramires xi. 288 Still mistrustful, still superstitiously shy, the Nobleman spent the day on his own, almost in hiding.

2001 ‘M. Wickham’ Sleeping Arrangem. vii. 130 If I can just get out of the gate without talking to anyone, she thought superstitiously. If I can get out of the gate…then everything will be all right.