Loathly
adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Loathsome; hideous.
"Her loathly viſage viewing with diſdaine, / Eftſoones I thought her ſuch, as ſhe me told, / And would haue kild her; but with faigned paine, / The falſe witch did my wrathfull hand with-hold; / So left her, where ſhe now is turnd to treen mould."
- 1 highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust wordnet
- 1 In a loathsome manner; disgustingly.
- 2 Unwillingly; reluctantly.
Example
More examples"Her loathly viſage viewing with diſdaine, / Eftſoones I thought her ſuch, as ſhe me told, / And would haue kild her; but with faigned paine, / The falſe witch did my wrathfull hand with-hold; / So left her, where ſhe now is turnd to treen mould."
Etymology
From Middle English lothli, loothly, from Old English lāþlīċ (“loathly, hateful, horrible, repulsive, unpleasant”); equivalent to loath + -ly.
From Middle English *lothli, loothly, from Old English lāþlīċe (“hatefully”), from lāþlīċ + -e (adverbial suffix); equivalent to loath + -ly.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.