inly

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English inly, from Old English inlīc (“inner, inward”), equivalent to in +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnli/

Adjective

inly (comparative more inly, superlative most inly)

1. (obsolete) Inward; interior; secret.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene 7, [1]

     Didst thou but know the inly touch of love / Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow / As seek to quench the fire of love with words.

Etymology 2

From Middle English inly, inliche, from Old English inlīċe (“inwardly”), equivalent to in +‎ -ly.

Adverb

inly (comparative more inly, superlative most inly)

1. (now rare) Inwardly, within; internally; secretly.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     I have inly wept, / Or should have spoke ere this.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, lines 441–4:

     His offering soon propitious fire from heaven / Consumed with nimble glance, and grateful steam; / The other's not, for his was not sincere; / Whereat he inly raged,

   • 1738, Paul Gerhard, "Thou Hidden Love of God," translated by John Wesley, in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymn Book, London, 1869, p.325, [2]

     Thou hidden love of God, whose height, / Whose depth unfathom'd no man knows; I see from far they beauteous light, / Inly I sigh for thy repose:

   • 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Vol. II, Chapter XXXV, [3]

     His heart inly relented,—there was a conflict,—but sin got the victory, and he set all the force of his rough nature against the conviction of his conscience.

   • 1852, Matthew Arnold, "Human Life" in The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840-1867, Oxford University Press, 1909, lines 1-6 [4]

     What mortal, when he saw, / Life's voyage done, his heavenly Friend, / Could ever yet dare tell him fearlessly: / 'I have kept uninfring'd my nature's law; / The inly-written chart thou gavest me / To guide me, I have steer'd by to the end'?

   • 1909, Thomas Hardy, "The Flirt's Tragedy" in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, London: Macmillan & Co., 1928, [5]

     Thus tempted, the lust to avenge me / Germed inly and grew.

   • 1914, Rabindranath Tagore, The King of the Dark Chamber, New York: Macmillan, p. 132, [6]

     A mighty forest inly smokes and smoulders before it bursts into a conflagration:

2. (obsolete) Heartily, completely, fully, thoroughly; extremely.
   • 1478, Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, The Friar's Tale, [7]

     And they were inly glad to fill his purse, / And make him greate feastes at the nale.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Ne was their salue, ne was their medicine, / That mote recure their wounds: so inly they did tine.

Anagrams

• lyin'