clerkly

American  

[klurk-lee, klahrk-lee] / ˈklɜrk li, ˈklɑrk li /

adjective

clerklier, clerkliest

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of a clerk.

2. Archaic. scholarly.

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adverb

1. in the manner of a clerk.

clerkly British  

/ ˈklɑːklɪ /

adjective

1. of or like a clerk

2. obsolete learned

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adverb

1. obsolete in the manner of a clerk

Other Word Forms

• clerkliness noun
• unclerkly adjective

Etymology

Origin of clerkly

First recorded in 1400–50, clerkly is from the late Middle English word clerkli. See clerk, -ly

Example Sentences

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

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

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

So did he also help invent what later became a modernist stereotype: the passive, clerkly man who must find ways of passing time while waiting for the end.

From Time Magazine Archive

No clerkly allegorical morality; no mouthing and capering market-place farce; no history of Joseph and his brethren, of the birth of the Saviour, or of the temptations of St. Anthony.

From Euphorion Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediaeval in the Renaissance - Vol. I by Lee, Vernon