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:
Anthony León is her lyrical tenor fiancé, Ernesto Petti Meg’s lordly loutish jealous husband and Nathan Bowles the loutish Dr. Caius.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2026
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
Peter Dinklage’s mental patient is a lordly, theatrical Christ, who speaks fondly of opera and England.
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2020
Strength to the strong and the lordly and lonely.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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)
Thou shalt lie down Undying with the dead, and lordlier there Than all the gold Odysseus' breast can bear, The evil and the strong!
From The Trojan women of Euripides by Euripides
It at least belongs to the domain of a lordlier, more majestic, more guiding and ordaining art.
From Ariadne Florentina Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving by Ruskin, John
Our Bateman comes of lordlier and more ancient lineage.
From The Valet's tragedy, and other studies by Lang, Andrew
A purer passion, a lordlier leisure, A peace more happy than lives on land, Fulfils with pulse of diviner pleasure The dreaming head and the steering hand.
From Astrophel and Other Poems Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Vol. VI by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
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
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
On a thunder-blasted tree-top near the western bank sits a lone, stern figure waiting for its lordliest prey—the eagle waiting for the swan.
From Aftermath by Allen, James Lane
Here the sun scarcely wakes; Like a monarch it takes Rest on the lordliest branches alone.
From Challenge by Untermeyer, Louis
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.
