Meanings
queenly1
comparative queenlier · superlative queenliest
- Having the status, rank or qualities of a queen; regal.
I'm so sorry. If I'd done my queenly duties right, none of this would have happened. But maybe I can fix it with some wish help.
2018, Queen True, “A Royal Stink”, in True and the Rainbow Kingdom2 more examples
So Maggie, glad of anything that would soothe her mother, and cheer their long day together, consented to the vain decoration, and showed a queenly head above her old frocks, steadily refusing, however, to look at herself in the glass.
1860, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], The Mill on the Floss […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLCThere was an innate refinement, a languid queenly hauteur about Gerty which was unmistakably evidenced in her delicate hands and higharched instep.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC - Resembling a queen (a typically feminine gay man); queenish.
1 more example
The Pet Shop Boys are yet another synth-pop duo, albeit one that is not quite out of the closet. […] In past interviews, however, they [the Pet Shop Boys] have referred to their sound as "specifically gay disco," and their lyrics have that certain queenly something that lead singer Neil Tennant sings with an adorable sibilance.
1990 December 23, Christopher Wittke, “Pop Goes 1990”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 23, page 9
queenly2
comparative queenlier · superlative queenliest
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
queenly · adjective
- Old Englishcwēnlīċ
- Middle Englishqueenly
- Englishqueenly
From Middle English queenly, quenly, from Old English cwēnlīċ, equivalent to queen + -ly.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →queenly · adverb
- Englishqueen
- Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
- Proto-Germanic*līką
- Englishqueenly
Cite this entry
queenly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/queenly
“queenly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/queenly. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “queenly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/queenly.
Source: queenly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.