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
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
On the benches below, Winterfell men mixed with smallfolk from the winter town, friends from the nearer holdfasts, and the escorts of their lordly guests.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
He owned Damelioc, and had also for his pleasure the house and estate of Hall, whence his family had moved to their lordlier mansion two generations before his birth.
From Shining Ferry by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
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
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
Nor shall my lord the king behold A lordlier friend of mightier mould Than Balen, though his tale be told Ere noon fulfil his morn.”
From The Tale of Balen by Algernon Charles Swinburne
It had watched the ebb and flow of lordlier fortunes.
From The ghosts of their ancestors by Weymer Jay Mills
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
Their dinners were served with as much punctiliousness as if the lordliest guests were present; their dancing parties, while somewhat barren of guests, were never dull for longer than ten minutes after they opened.
From The Man from Brodney's by George Barr McCutcheon
Had I his whose foresight rare Piles the stones with lordliest art, From the quarry of my heart Love should climb a heavenly stair!
From The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2 by George MacDonald
With snuffle and sniff and handkerchief, And dim and decorous mirth, With ham and sherry, they'll meet to bury The lordliest lass of earth.
From The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
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.
