ladyly

comparative more ladyly · superlative most ladyly

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of ladily.

   We do not refer to the fashionable annuals, those very ineffable bulletins of lordly and ladyly inanity;

   1840, “Advertisements and Advertisers”, in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine for 1840, volume VII, Edinburgh: William Tait, […], page 385

   4 more examples

   Sheridan (no less by birth than marriage degraded below the established standard) was eventually elevated as high as the breath of lordly and ladyly adulation could bear him.

   1833, “Philosophy of the Beau Monde”, in The Court Journal, London: […] Henry Colburn; […] W. Thomas, page 338

   They all looked affronted at being asked to meet each other; and every time the door opened, I saw them looking out anxiously for some lordly or ladyly arrival.

   1841, Albany Poyntz, “Diary of a Dining-Out Man”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume IX, London: Richard Bentley, page 288

   As Clara thus deteriorated—at least what Mr. and Mrs. de Saumarez called deterioration—becoming more concentrated in her mental turbulence, so to speak, and more vehement and impassioned every way, Alice improved so rapidly that the very servants learned to call her the “most ladyly” and the “best mistress of the two;” for servants are excellent judges of conventional breeding.

   1851, E[liza] Lynn, Realities: A Tale, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, page 58

   In British mystery fiction the hero works for pay, because he is a part of the official police force or a private investigator; sometimes he or she works merely for gentlemanly or ladyly fun.

   1986, Ray B. Browne, Heroes and Humanities: Detective Fiction and Culture, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, →ISBN, page 3

comparative more ladyly · superlative most ladyly

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of ladily.

   Riding their bicycles aflash ladies were ladyly abashed when frocks bob-bobbed and, ducking the breeze, went rippling back from their glossy knees.

   1939, Time’s Wall Asunder, page 15

   3 more examples

   I will be careful not to poison Flushie. He is growing so fine-ladyly delicate, that he expects, I believe, to be nourished upon macaroons & dews, or some such fairy dieting.

   1842 February 10, The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1836-1854, published 1983, page 349

   On my asking if she did not admire the melody of his versification, she replied, very ladyly, that she did in all that she had read of his, which was only a few stray songs that had fallen in her way.

   1869, Franklin Fox, editor, Memoir of Mrs Eliza Fox. To Which Extracts Are Added from the Journals and Letters of Her Husband, the Late W. J. Fox M.P. for Oldham., London: N. Trübner & Co., page 90

   In short, it was a real folk-song, the work of the people, and the burden was either older, or was a corruption of “Dance over ladyly” (i.e., “dance forward gracefully”).

   1915, Notes and Queries, page 478