clerkly
Americanadverb
adjective
-
of or like a clerk
-
obsolete learned
adverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of clerkly
First recorded in 1400–50, clerkly is from the late Middle English word clerkli. See clerk, -ly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I hadn’t realised how deeply the ancient sense of proprietorship by the powerful over the depiction of love was embedded in literary, that is clerkly, English.
From The Guardian • Sep. 6, 2019
And yet we are all in it together; the peasantification of clerkdom goes hand in hand with the replacement of drudge work by machines or by knowledge work – clerkly work.
From The Guardian • Sep. 6, 2019
The young clerks made jokes about him to the best of their clerkly wit, and told before his face all 35 sorts of stories of their own invention about him.
From SAT Tests
Dawson cited the case of William James Sidis, the ex-child prodigy who sued the New Yorker for rediscovering him in his clerkly obscurity with ', "Where Are They Now?" piece.
From Time Magazine Archive
The clerkly knave who brought Lord Carleton’s message shrunk and shriveled before it like a leaf too near the fire.
From Cedric, the Forester by Marshall, Bernard Gay
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
