fitly

From fit +‎ -ly.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪtli/

fitly (comparative more fitly, superlative most fitly)

1. In a fit manner

   Synonyms: suitably, properly, commodiously, conveniently

   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     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. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act II, Scene 1,

     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, King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 25:11,

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

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XI, Labour:

     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, Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, 1987, Chapter 28,

     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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.