fitly

From fit +‎ -ly.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪtli/
• Rhymes: -ɪtli

fitly (comparative more fitly or (rare, literary) fitlier, superlative most fitly or (rare, literary) fitliest)

1. In a fit manner

   Synonyms: suitably, properly, commodiously, conveniently

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Meane-while it is a great comfort unto a Christian man, to see our mortall implements, and fading tooles, so fitly sorted to our holy and divine faith […].

   • c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; a’ plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 25:11:

     A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter XI, Labour”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):

     Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness, — to all knowledge, ‘self-knowledge’ and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.

   • 1948, Alan Paton, chapter 28, in Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, published 1987:

     This Court has a solemn duty to protect society against the murderous attacks of dangerous men, whether they be old or young, and to show clearly that it will punish fitly such offenders.

• “fitly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.