imaginarily

English

Etymology

imaginary +‎ -ly

Adverb

imaginarily (not comparable)

1. In an imaginary way, in the imagination.
   • 1606, Henry Peacham, The art of drawing vvith the pen, and limming in water colours‎, London: William Jones, Book 1, Chapter 2, pp. 7-8:

     But we end with those famous Artists leauing them to their graues, and their works to the admiration of all posterity, and speake of Statuary or Caruing, which thus farre differeth from painting; this doth expresse hir image in the plaine or smooth superficies imaginarily; the other in the hollow and vneuen superficies, really.

   • 1724, Aaron Hill and William Bond, The Plain Dealer No. 40, 7 August, 1724, Volume 1, London: S. Richardson and A. Wilde, 1730, p. 335,

     The Father (if all our Family guesses right, and much I fear we do) will be inraged at the Loss of an Estate, in which he had imaginarily placed the whole Sum of his Son’s Felicity in this World;

   • 1940, Glenway Wescott, The Pilgrim Hawk, New York: New York Review of Books, published 2001, page 20:

     The lethargically mad, sitting with their hands in their laps, imaginarily exhausted, unable to speak above a whisper, with burning but unfocusable eyes, unable to concentrate...

   • 2013, Tao Lin, chapter 6, in Taipei‎, New York: Vintage, page 214:

     At some point, the past two or three weeks, Paul had begun to imaginarily hear Erin quietly sobbing—whenever she was in a bathroom with the sink on, and sometimes when in bed, beside him […]

2. (obsolete) By way of an image.
   • 1567, Thomas Harding, A reioindre to M. Iewels replie against the sacrifice of the Masse‎, Leuven: Division 8:

     The which Sacrament Melchisedech King of Salem first offered vp figuratiuely in type (or token) of the body and bloude of Christe: and the same man first of al expressed imaginarily (or in image) the Mysterie of this so great a Sacrifice, foreshewing the likenesse of our Lorde and Sauiour Iesus Christe the euerlasting Priest.

   • 1667, Jeremy Taylor, The second part of the dissuasive from popery in vindication of the first part, and further reproof and conviction of the Roman errors‎, London: R. Royston, Part 2, Book 2, Section 7, p. 154:

     […] some desiring to please their tyrannous Princes, put up their statues, and at distance by a phantastical presence flattered them with honours. And in process of time, these were made Gods; and the incommunicable name was given to wood and stones. Not that the Heathens thought that image to be very God, but that they were imaginarily present in them, and so had their Name.