Headly

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Chief; principal; capital; (of sins) deadly. archaic

    "O'er blows the filthy and contagious clouds / Of headly murther, spoil, and villainy."

  2. 2
    Heady; violent; impetuous. archaic

Example

More examples

"O'er blows the filthy and contagious clouds / Of headly murther, spoil, and villainy."

Etymology

From Middle English hedly, havedlich, from Old English hēafodlīċ (“at the top, principal, capital, deadly”), equivalent to head + -ly. Cognate with West Frisian haadlik, Dutch hoofdelijk, Middle Low German hö̂vetlī̂k, Middle High German houbetlich (archaic German hauptlich). Piecewise doublet of chefly and chiefly.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.