dernly

English

Etymology

From dern +‎ -ly.

Adverb

dernly (comparative more dernly, superlative most dernly)

1. (obsolete) Secretly.
2. (obsolete) Sternly, imposingly.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     next stroke him should haue slaine, / Had not the Lady, which by him stood bound, / Dernely vnto her called to abstaine […]

3. (obsolete) Sorrowfully; grievously.

Anagrams

• nerdly