woodly

See also: Woodly

English

Etymology

From Middle English woodly, wodly, wodliche (“furiously, wildly”), equivalent to wood (“mad, furious, wild, insane”) +‎ -ly.

Adverb

woodly (comparative more woodly, superlative most woodly)

1. (obsolete) Madly; furiously.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “woodly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Middle English

Adverb

woodly

1. madly
   • late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 1299-1302:

     Ther-with the fyr of Ielousye up-sterte
     With-inne his brest, and hente him by the herte
     So woodly, that he lyk was to biholde
     The box-tree, or the asshen dede and colde.

     With that the fire of jealousy started up
     Within his breast, and seized him by the heart
     So madly that he was to look upon like
     The box tree or the ash dead and cold.