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
From 1958 to 1961, sulking Giants and Dodgers fans had to put up with the lordly Yankees winning three pennants and two World Series.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2022
Suddenly Mordred was flaming at them, fired by Gawaine’s lordly tone.
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 Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
It had watched the ebb and flow of lordlier fortunes.
From The ghosts of their ancestors by Weymer Jay Mills
Humbler smiles and lordlier tears Shine and fall, shine and fall, While old voices rise and call Yonder where the to-and-fro Weltering of my Long-Ago Moves about the moveless base Far below my resting-place.
From The Poems of Sidney Lanier by Sidney Lanier
That is now a provincial High Street beside its lordlier compeer; but I remember when Broadway stormed and swarmed with busy life.
From Imaginary Interviews by William Dean Howells
Devil and brute Thou dost transmute To higher, lordlier show, Who art in sooth that lovely Truth The careless angels know!
From Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling
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 "lingering orange afterglow" is "more fair than all Rome's lordliest pageants."
From Oscar Wilde by Leonard Cresswell Ingleby
His penchant for "lions" always led him to prefer the lordliest among them.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 101, May, 1876 by Various
A marble staircase led him to the lordliest smoking-room in London.
From Corporal Sam and Other Stories by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
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