goodly
Americanadjective
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of good or substantial size, amount, etc..
a goodly sum.
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of good or fine appearance.
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Archaic. of a good quality.
a goodly gift.
adjective
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considerable
a goodly amount of money
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obsolete attractive, pleasing, or fine
a goodly man
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of goodly
before 1000; Middle English; Old English gōdlīc. See good, -ly
Explanation
A goodly amount of something is plenty of it. If you bake a goodly number of brownies for a bake sale, there are more than enough. The adjective goodly can describe a large quantity and also a large size: "You described your house as tiny, but it's actually a goodly size!" You might bring home a goodly amount of spinach from the farmer's market, or take a new job that comes with a goodly increase in salary. Goodly comes from an Old English root word, godlic, "excellent, good, or fair."
Vocabulary lists containing goodly
The Tempest
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Brian's Winter
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"Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
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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.
See Examples For:
"The last time we had goodly numbers... was round about 2017, so it's great to see them now."
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2024
He was optimistic that the sprinklers would save “a goodly number of them” from extreme heat, he said.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
I also disappeared for a goodly while into Stephen Amidon’s taut domestic thriller “Locust Lane,” which is just coming out this month.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 10, 2023
Grainger made sense because his wind band music usefully employed a goodly number of winds included in the 32 young musicians, and because you can’t have too many winds in a band.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2022
Moreover, she was a goodly maid, fair enough, but not too fair so as to be vain over it.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
King Solomon walked a thousand times Forth of his garden-close; And saw there spring no goodlier thing, Be sure, than the same little rose.
From The Melody of Earth An Anthology of Garden and Nature Poems From Present-Day Poets by Various
I had grown tired of architecture: it seemed goodlier to watch the shipping on the river, which at Arnheim may be called the Rhine without hesitation.
From A Wanderer in Holland by Marshall, Herbert, R. W .S.
Yet, great as was his skill, he was not therefore anywise goodlier of person or better favoured than Messer Forese.
From The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Payne, John
It was a fair picture, and no eye could rest on a goodlier couple than the tall lithe young man, and the noble maiden.
From Tales from Many Sources Vol. V by Various
Bank it had none, but its margin was the lawn, to which it imparted a goodlier freshness.
From The Decameron, Volume II by Rigg, J. M. (James Macmullen)
Virginia “is wonderfull fertile and very rich,” he told the company, with “a goodly River called Patomack, upon the borders whereof there are grown the goodliest Trees.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 26, 2017
From the outside Satan can see "higher than that wall a circling row / Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit".
From The Guardian ● Jan. 29, 2011
Sir," saith he, "Messire Guillaume sendeth you his goodliest fellowship.
From Tales from the Old French by Various
"The loveliest pair That ever yet in love's embraces met: Adam, the goodliest man of men since born His sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve."
From The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed by Miller, Hugh
He's ta'en out the goodliest, Rain that rains in the mill-water; A comb of yellow shell for all the rest, A comb of gold for the king's daughter.
From Poems & Ballads (First Series) by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
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.
