Green’s Dictionary of Slang

general intensifier, very, extremely; also as adj., very great.

1621

170018001900

1936

1621		Rowley, Dekker & Ford Witch of Edmonton II i: ’Tis woundy cold sure.
1699		N. Ward London Spy XI 257: They are woundy Silent.
1700		‘Roger in Amaze’ Wit’s Cabinet 149: Most woundily pleas’d, I up and down the vair did range.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:2 21: So to a Feast should I invite ye, / You’d stuff your Guts, and cry Goodbwi’t’ye. But hold a little, why so fast? / Methinks you’re all in woundy haste.
1736		Fielding Tumble-Down Dick 12: Odso! methinks ’tis woundy light [...] Its woundy hot.
1740		Scots Mag. 5 Sept. 27/1: The day, quo’ Tom, grows woundy hot.
1741		Witchcraft of Love 29: What an if her Father should chop up the Wedding to Day, for he likes me woundily.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 414: Me thinks, (said I) when I saw them in such a woundy pother to be gone, oddsheartikins! this must be some Lundon prentice running away with his measter’s daughter.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas III ii: He is so plump, / And makes such a woundy racket.
1770		T. Chatterton Revenge II i: Ah! there it is! why I was woundy stupid!
1779		Hampshire Chron. 25 Oct. 4/3: Some woundy large cannon were placed in their flanks.
1789		Bath Chron. 26 Feb. Johnson gave Ryan some woundy hard blows: .
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 81: Whilst John’s odd face and sly grimace, / Confest ’twas woundy pleasing.
1800		G. Colman Yngr Heir at Law III iv: Woundily, indeed!
c.1800		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Royal Visit to Exeter’ Works (1801) V 102: No woundy fuss was made ’Bout dress amongst the men in trade.
1809		Kentish Gaz. 31 Oct. 2/1: A General once in a woundy brawl was sent out to take a trip, With horses and soldiers, and cannon and all.
1825		‘West-Country Bumpkin’s Description’ Universal Songster I 231: I thought ’twas a shameful thing / To serve a poor babe such a woundy trick.
1826		Vulgarities of Speech Corrected n.p.: Woundily Very.
1837		Devizes & Wilts Gaz. 23 Feb. 2/4: The few members of the society who happened to be electors were [...] ‘woundy savage’ at being utterly despised and rejected.
1839		North. Liberator (Tyne & Wear) 26 Jan. 3/4: My Lord of Brougham seems woundily distempered.
1840		‘Gloucestershire Bumpkin’ Lover’s Harmony No. 18 138: I thought it a shameful thing / For to serve the poor babe such a woundey trick.
1847		Fife Herald 15 July 3/2: He’ll get woundy thin, poor cretur.
1852		Western Times 24 Apr. 5/6: Purtection may be woundy nice, but then I allus zay [etc.].
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone III 131: Have my great-coat, miss? It’s woundy cold.
1877		‘Comical Incidentsy’ Laughing Songster 60: I thought that such a woundy droll thing.
1890		Westmorland Gaz. 12 Apr. 2/1: But the stout smith Jock with his old mother’s crook / He gave him a woundy bang.
1936		Hull Dly Mail 13 June 4/2: The success of the international Horse Show [...] is a woundy smack in the eye for those who maintain the horse has had its day .