mightily

Adverb

mightily (comparative more mightily, superlative most mightily)

1. (literary) With much physical force, power, or strength; also, with divine or superhuman power or strength.
   • The chivalrous knights entered the lists and fought mightily.
   • So cry Hand & Hyle the eldest of the fathers of Albions / Little-ones; to destroy the Divine Saviour: the Friend of Sinners. / Building Castles in desolated places, and strong Fortifications. / Soon Hand mightily devour'd & absorb'd Albions Twelve Sons.1804–1820 (date written), William Blake, “Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion”, in Edwin John Ellis and William Butler Yeats, editors, The Works of William Blake: Poetic, Symbolic, and...

   Synonyms:

   mightly, mighty, strongly, powerfully, vigorously

2. With much emotional, intellectual, or mental force or power; vehemently.
   • Sir, I ſhal not be ſlacke, in ſigne vvhereof / Pleaſe ye vve may contriue this afternoone, / And quaffe carovvſes to our Miſtreſſe health, / And do as aduerſaries do in lavv, / Striue mightily, but eate and drinke as friends.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • But let man and beaſt be couered with ſackecloth, and cry mightily vnto God: yea, let them turne euery one from his euill way, and from the violence that is in their hands.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 3:8, signature Gggg, recto, column 2

   Synonyms:

   mightly

3. Of a characteristic: provided or present to a powerful or strong extent.
   • [A]lthough he vvas a man mightely friended, yet vvas he by a publike decree baniſhed into one of the Abſyrtides, iſlan ds vpon the coaſt of Libvrnia.1603, Richard Knolles, “The Life of Baiazet, Second of that Name, and Second Emperour of the Turkes”, in The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 459
   • Time, O mighty and mightily peopled city, / Time is busy with thee.1898, Laurence Binyon, “[London Visions.] Songs of the World Unborn.”, in Porphyrion and Other Poems, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC, book, page 80

   Synonyms:

   mightly

4. (informal) To a great extent; extremely, greatly.
   • He sounded mightily proud of himself.
   • Therein thou vvrong'ſt thy Children mightily.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

   Synonyms:

   mightly, enormously, mighty, much, very much, acutely, awfully, almighty, badly, impossibly

5. (obsolete) Put in place through the use of force or power.
   • [T]his group of the lion and the man [a sculpture] now bear an unfinished, unwrought appearance, but you cannot look at it a moment, and not instantly avow the majesty and grandeur of the idea that once lay there so mightily embodied.1863 June, “Rough Notes of a Ride to Babylon”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XCIII, number DLXXII, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 679, column 1
   • O, mightily seated and / Throned are our masters, / And steadily rooted; […]1866, Lord de Tabley [i.e., John Warren, 3rd Baron de Tabley], “Philoctetes: A Metrical Drama”, in The Collected Poems of Lord de Tabley, London: Chapman & Hall, published 1903, →OCLC, page 166

   Synonyms:

   mightly