Meanings
- obsoleteObsolete spelling of only.
on his right The radiant image of his Glory ſat, His onely Son;
1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 62–643 more examples
Before the Sea and Lande were made,and Heauen that all doth hide, In all the worlde one onely face of nature did abide,
1567, Ovid, The.xv.Bookes of P. Ouidius Naſo, entytuled Metamorphoſis, tranſlated oute of Latin into Engliſh meeter, by Arthur Golding, GentlemanIn which him chaunced false Duessa meete, Mine onely foe, mine onely deadly dread; Who with her witchcraft and misseeming sweete, Inveigled him to follow her desires unmeete.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneAll flesh is grasse, is not onely metaphorically, but literally true, for all those creatures we behold, are but the hearbs of the field, digested into flesh in them, or more remotely carnified in our selves.
1643, Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
onely. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onely
“onely.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onely. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “onely,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onely.
Source: onely on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.