dearliest

English

Adverb

dearliest

1. (rare) superlative form of dearly: most dearly
   • 1612–1626, Joseph Hall, Contemplations upon the Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Holy Jesus, London: […] E. Flesher, and are to be sold by Jacob Tonson, […], published 1679, page 386:

     Even thoſe whom we loved dearlieſt, we avoid once dead; now we lay them aſide under the board, and thence ſend them out of our houſes to their grave.

   • 1703, a Member of the Athenian Society, The Athenian Oracle: Being an Entire Collection of All the Valuable Questions and Answers in the Old Athenian Mercuries. […], volume II, London: […] Andrew Bell, […], page 481:

     But you, O thrice ingenuous Queriſt, / Whom we by Sympathy love dearlieſt, / You are inſpir’d, there’s no doubt of ye / With Beef-Broth ſtrong, and potent Coffee!

   • a. 1864, Francis Kilvert, “The Last Loss”, in W[illiam] L[uke] N[ichols], editor, Remains in Verse and Prose of the Rev. Francis Kilvert, M.A. With a Brief Memoir., Bath: S. W. Simms, […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, published 1866, page 26:

     All past and present losses shrink / In that sad blow comprest, / Those we last loved, we seem to love / The dearliest and the best.

   • 1878, Algernon Charles Swinburne, “[Four Songs of Four Seasons.] II. Spring in Tuscany.”, in Poems and Ballads, second series, London: Chatto and Windus, […], page 180:

     Land of us all that have loved thee dearliest, / Mother of men that were lords of man, / Whose name in the world’s heart works as a spell, / My last song’s light, and the star of mine earliest, / As we turn from thee, sweet, who wast ours for a span, / Fare well we may not who say farewell.