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:
“Gone forever are the mighty herds of the lordly buffalo,” Theodore Roosevelt declared.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Roan, dressed as a lordly knight, emerges from a castle and conquers it.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2025
The surge ended in the World Series, the lordly Yankees winning in six games, but Mays was on his way and Durocher gave him full credit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
Peter Dinklage’s mental patient is a lordly, theatrical Christ, who speaks fondly of opera and England.
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2020
Or did the lordly young man just not bother to notice small boys?
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
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 Euripedes by Euripedes
Spring, the low prelude of a lordlier song; Summer, a music without hint of death: Autumn, a cadence lingeringly long: Winter, a pause;—the Minstrel-Year takes breath.
From A Book of Epigrams by Various
And over these living, and them that died, From one to the other side A lordlier light than comes of earth or air Made the world's future fair.
From Two Nations by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Presently, as in legend was re-born the Arabian bird, arises from these ashes a lordlier and more spacious town.”
From Chivalry by James Branch Cabell
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
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
Though dust your house, Justinian, Still stands your lordliest shrine, But the dark men who walk therein, Know not of bread nor wine.
From Poems - Second Series by J. C. (John Collings) Squire
V A commonweal arrayed and crowned With gold and purple, girt with steel At need, that foes must fear or feel, We find her, as our fathers found, Earth's lordliest commonweal.
From Poems and Ballads (Third Series) Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. III by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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