zealouslyhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zealously_adv%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezealously, adv.
Revised 2018

zealouslyadverb

  1. 1.
    ?1495–
    In a zealous manner; esp. with passionate enthusiasm, fervour, or dedication; (formerly also) †with intense, powerful or overpowering feeling (cf. zeal n. 1b) (obsolete).
    1. ?1495
      And agayn to take grete shame & conscyence whan we rede them to haue doon so zelously in goddys cause.
      R. Fitzjames, Sermo Die Lune in Ebdomada Pasche (de Worde) sig. biv
    2. 1544
      Thus haue ye the answere of god wherfore he geueth his blessinges to the wyked, commandinge vs not to folowe theyr stepes, nor yet zelously to enuye their prosperite, but paciently to abyde a lytle.
      G. Joye, Present Consol. Sufferers Persecucion sig. C. iij
    3. 1575
      At the first when the light of the gospel..began to appeare, many were zelously bent to godlines.
      T. Vautrollier, translation of M. Luther, Comm. Epist. to Galathians f. 24v
    4. 1611
      To professe it [sc. Religion] zealously.
      M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. to Reader sig. A4
    5. 1645
      Thy care is fixt, and zealously attends To fill thy odorous Lamp with deeds of light.
      J. Milton, Sonnet ix, in Poems 50
    6. 1661
      The chanslir is selusslie your frind.
      in O. Airy, Lauderdale Papers (1884) vol. I. 92
    7. 1716
      You all remember how zealously, a few Years ago, these very Men join'd in the Cry of the Danger of the Church.
      Polit. State Great Britain October 404
    8. 1769
      You zealously undertook the cause of that gallant army.
      ‘Junius’, Polit. Contest iii. 18
    9. 1879
      We know how fond ants are of honey, and how zealously and unremittingly they search for food.
      J. Lubbock, Scientific Lectures ii. 36
    10. 1886
      A place..where there was no prospect of improvement, however zealously one worked.
      W. Besant, Children of Gibeon vol. II. ii. v. 13
    11. 1926
      He addressed himself zealously to the study of Turkish.
      Times 31 August 14/5
    12. 1975
      They have zealously guarded the right of expression.
      Crisis November 369/3
    13. 2006
      An ambitious nation zealously committed to overseas trade.
      R. Kagan, Dangerous Nation (2007) iii. 97
  2. 2.
    1644
    † From or as a result of religious zeal; out of zealous devotion. Obsolete. rare.
    1. 1644
      It will easily be true that a father or brother may be hated zealously, and lov'd civilly or naturally.
      J. Milton, Doctrine Divorce (ed. 2) 19

zealously, adv. was revised in June 2018.

zealously, adv. was last modified in June 2024.