LORDLY (lordlier, lordliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: lordlier    , lordliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lordly mean? 

• LORDLY (adjective)
  The adjective LORDLY has 2 senses:

1. of or befitting a lord

2. having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

  Familiarity information: LORDLY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LORDLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or befitting a lord

Synonyms:

august; grand; lordly

Context example:

of august lineage

Similar:

noble (of or belonging to or constituting the hereditary aristocracy especially as derived from feudal times)

Derivation:

Lord (a titled peer of the realm)

lordliness (formality in bearing and appearance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

Synonyms:

disdainful; haughty; imperious; lordly; overbearing; prideful; sniffy; supercilious; swaggering

Context example:

a more swaggering mood than usual

Similar:

proud (feeling self-respect or pleasure in something by which you measure your self-worth; or being a reason for pride)

Derivation:

lordliness (overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors)

 Context examples 

Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these mighty countries which rise up before me?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was one great tomb more lordly than all the rest; huge it was, and nobly proportioned.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

On Sunday picnics at Shellmound Park and Schuetzen Park, in the past, he had rested his head on many laps, and, usually, he had slept soundly and selfishly while the girls shaded his face from the sun and looked down and loved him and wondered at his lordly carelessness of their love.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

High and bluff the English cog; long, black and swift the pirate galleys, like two fierce lean wolves which have seen a lordly and unsuspecting stag walk past their forest lair.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lucy lies in the tomb of her kin, a lordly death-house in a lonely churchyard, away from teeming London; where the air is fresh, and the sun rises over Hampstead Hill, and where wild flowers grow of their own accord.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It is a lordly task.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But as the meek and lowly at the penitent form catch splendid glimpses of their future lordly existence, so did he catch similar glimpses of the state he would gain to by possessing her.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Once it was a wild sow which scuttled out of the bracken, with two young sounders at her heels, and once a lordly red staggard walked daintily out from among the tree trunks, and looked around him with the fearless gaze of one who lived under the King's own high protection.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The man's stooped and narrow shoulders and weazened chest proclaimed him the true child of the crowded ghetto, and strong on Martin was the age-long struggle of the feeble, wretched slaves against the lordly handful of men who had ruled over them and would rule over them to the end of time.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)