trimly

trimly

English

Etymology

trim +‎ -ly

Adverb

trimly (comparative more trimly, superlative most trimly)

1. In a trim manner; neatly, smartly.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:

     […] when the fight was done,
     When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
     Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
     Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress’d,
     Fresh as a bridegroom […]

   • 1707, [Joseph Addison], Rosamond. An Opera. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 1102736027, Act II, scene 2, page 17:

     […] tell me why
     With weeping Eyes so oft I spy
     His Whiskers curl’d, and Shoo-strings ty’d,
     A new Toledo by his Side,
     In Shoulder-belt so trimly plac’d,
     With Band so nicely smooth’d and lac’d.

   • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 2, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, OCLC 699873, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 6:

     […] in a few score yards I would come upon perfectly undisturbed spaces, houses with their blinds trimly drawn and doors closed, as if they had been left for a day by the owners, or as if their inhabitants slept within.

   • 1914 June, James Joyce, “(please specify the story)”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, OCLC 1170255194:

     In one of these trimly built cars was a party of four young men whose spirits seemed to be at present well above the level of successful Gallicism […]

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, OCLC 751607287, page 209:

     Cora was standing trimly there with her bewildered stare still on him, and memory restored to Bradly the sweet full lines of her naked body under that skimpy frock.

   • December 2020, Tim Folger, “North America’s most valuable resource is at risk”, in National Geographic‎:

     Borg has graying black hair and is trimly built, fit from a lifetime of hard work maintaining gas pipelines while trapping on the side.

2. (obsolete) Effectively, handily, nicely, thoroughly, soundly, well.
   • 1566, Thomas Becon, A New Postil Conteinyng Most Godly and Learned Sermons upon all the Sonday Gospelles, London, “The third Sonday after Easter, The Gospell. Ihon. xvi.,” p. 235,

     And it is sayde both moste trimly and truly in the Epistle to the Hebreues, as we heard afore: If ye be not vnder correction, (wherof all are partakers) then are ye bastardes and not sonnes.

   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 104-106,

     […] a merry winters tale would drive away the time trimly, come I am sure you are not without a score.

   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge: John Williams, Book Four, Chapter 16: The Embassadour, p. 319,

     Lewis the eleventh King of France is sufficiently condemn’d by Posterity for sending Oliver his Barber in an Embassage to a Princesse, who so trimly dispatch’d his businesse, that he left it in the suddes, and had been well wash’d in the river at Gant for his pains, if his feet had not been the more nimble.