lichtly

comparative more lichtly · superlative most lichtly

1. Scotlandlightly; gently or without great force.

   Saft in his arms he caught her up, Winsome Annie Ramsay. An' swang her lichtly to the croup, Winsome Annie Ramsay.

   1851, Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal

   2 more examples

   I will mak a lang ladder, Wi' fifty steps and three, three, I will mak a lang ladder, And lichtly come doun to thee, thee, And lichtly come doun to thee.

   1827 -, George Ritchie Kinloch, The ballad book

   Than, tae her gret surprise, he touched her hair, sae lichtly that she cud haurdly feel it, an rinnin a finger doonwart, he fund her yae lang braid an pickit it up.

   2011, Wulf Kurtoglu, Caroline Macafee, Braken Fences, →ISBN, page 63

2. ScotlandIn a manner that is not serious.

   “Dinna speak sae lichtly, Thamas," remonstrated his wife. “

   1877, Henry Johnston, The Dawsons of Glenara: A Story of Scottish Life, page 38

   2 more examples

   But a wuman wha wad sae misguide the son o' her ain body, an' for naething but that as she had broucht him furth sic he was, — it "s no to be lichtly believed nor lichtly endured.

   1874, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature

   Weel, time gaed by: and the idler sort commenced to think mair lichtly o' that black business.

   1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables

present singular third person lichtlies · participle present lichtlying · participle past lichtlied · past lichtlied

1. ScotlandTo slight; to treat contemptuously or without seriousness.

   This is nae change-hoose, John Munro, And ye needna come nae mair: Ye crookit yer mou', and lichtlied me, Last Wednesday, at the fair."

   1865, George MacDonald, Alec Forbes of Howglen, page 150

   4 more examples

   nevertheles the sadis Johnne of Haldane and James, and thar complices, now again has cummyn to the samyn, and masterfully has tain and occupiis thaim, and has of new castin furth thar gudis, corne and catall, but ony resoune, as is allegit, in great lichtlying, contempt, and dissobeying of our autorite, lettres, mandmentis, and charges.

   1835, Mark Napier, History of the Partition of the Lennox, page 130

   Then, when to avenge this "lichtlying" of their sovereign lord, as the Estates term it, a great army was raised to pass to the invasion of England, a nuncio appeared, who required the two nations to stop their quarrel, presenting a Papal requisition to all Christian sovereigns to be at peace with each other, and unite against their common enemy the Turk.

   1873, John Hill Burton, The History of Scotland

   But I canna — no, I canna gae forret," she told herself, wringing her horny hands, " and see the puir thing's hie hopes dashed to the ground, and listen in her hearing to the lichtlying and denying to her face o' her richt to her bairns, who are the apples o' her een, and their claim to the Castle and lands o' their forbears when the Duke is dune wi' them.

   1895, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Yates, Temple Bar

   'Wae be to you, Blackly,' she said, 'Aye and an ill death may you die! You are the first, and I hope the last, That eer made my lord lichtly me.'

   2013, Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, →ISBN