lordly
Americanadjective
-
suitable for a lord, as trappings or ceremonies; grand or magnificent.
-
insolently imperious; haughty; arrogant; overbearing.
lordly contempt.
- Synonyms:
- domineering
- Antonyms:
- meek
-
of or relating to a lord.
-
having the character or attributes of a lord.
-
befitting a lord, as actions.
lordly manners.
adverb
adjective
-
haughty; arrogant; proud
-
of or befitting a lord
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lordly
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hlāfordlīc. See lord, -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.
See Examples For:
That team became the lordly Yankees, an “aesthetically evil” and “universally despised dynasty” that, nonetheless, Mr. Gittlitz grudgingly admits, has a lot of working-class fans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Roan, dressed as a lordly knight, emerges from a castle and conquers it.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2025
When I entered Babylon in a peaceful manner, I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
Arya meanwhile gets on a ship bound for “west of Westeros,” and Bronn, having perhaps threatened Tyrion with his crossbow offscreen at some point, minds the money of Westeros from a lordly perch at Highgarden.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2019
"A mere scratch," said Cor, using for the first time a rather lordly tone.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Presently, as in legend was re-born the Arabian bird, arises from these ashes a lordlier and more spacious town.”
From Chivalry by Cabell, James Branch
Devil and brute Thou dost transmute To higher, lordlier show, Who art in sooth that lovely Truth The careless angels know!
From The Knave of Diamonds by Dell, Ethel M. (Ethel May)
It had watched the ebb and flow of lordlier fortunes.
From The ghosts of their ancestors by Mills, Weymer Jay
They strew the passions that enrich a lordlier art than their own.
From Promenades of an Impressionist by Huneker, James
The nobler, the richer, the lordlier inheritance, is yours.
From Misread Passage of Scriptures by Brown, James Baldwin
A Hogarthian cast of characters, from Britain's lordliest media barons to subalterns on the yellowest of yellow rags.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 29, 2012
With a membership limited to 300, the National Academy is the lordliest body of scholars in the country and the Comstock Prize, its highest honor, is awarded only once every five years.
From Time Magazine Archive
The man— Eteocles I mean—who died for Thebes Fighting with eminent prowess on her side, Shall be entombed with every sacred rite That follows to the grave the lordliest dead.
From The Seven Plays in English Verse by Sophocles
At the Congress of Rastatt her envoys disposed of German duchies and bishoprics in the lordliest way.
From William Pitt and the Great War by Rose, John Holland
I. Love, loyallest and lordliest born of things, Immortal that shouldst be, though all else end, In plighted hearts of fearless friend with friend, Whose hand may curb or clip thy plume-plucked wings?
From A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems 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.
