Meanings
comparative more urbanely · superlative most urbanely
- In an urbane manner.
The other took the card from his hand, read it in a rapid glance, looked again at Newman from head to foot, hesitated a moment, and then said, gravely but urbanely, “Madame de Cintré is not at home.”
1876 June, Henry James, Jr., “The American”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XXXVII, number CCXXIV, Boston, Mass.: H[enry] O[scar] Houghton and Company; New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, chapter III, page 673, column 11 more example
Appleby[…]rose from his seat when Morales came in. He shook hands urbanely, unbuckled his sword, and laid his kepi on the table, and then sat down with an expression of concern in his olive face which Appleby fancied was assumed.
1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 22, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC
Origin
From urbane + -ly. Piecewise doublet of urbanly.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
urbanely. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/urbanely
“urbanely.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/urbanely. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “urbanely,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/urbanely.
Source: urbanely on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.