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
"I'd tell Mother how you helped me, and you could stay—" "Would m'lady permit? Could I shoe your horses for you, and make swords for your lordly brothers?"
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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 Swinburne, Algernon Charles
He was kin to men lordlier than himself, the true-hearted who had ridden the King's path and trampled a little world under foot.
From The Half-Hearted by Buchan, John
He would but frown To hear thee talk as though the woodlands there Were built no lordlier than the wide-walled town.
From Locrine: a tragedy by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
Soon will the lordlier summits, here unseen, Gather the night about their nakedness.
From The Poems of William Watson by Watson, William
A child's heart toward his kind is not more pure, An eagle's toward the sun no lordlier eye.
From Victor Hugo: His Life and Works by Smith, G. Barnett
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
If you are having the easy part of your year now, I hope you are finding in it the lordliest, or rather the unlordliest leisure....
From The Letters of Henry James, Vol. II by James, Henry
There was the scamper of a thousand feet as the engine swung into the street with the lordliest flourish and address.
From Nights in London by Burke, Thomas
But now they are lost, their lordliest 'scutcheon stained; Upon their ruined walls no trumpet rings; Their shrines defiled, their sacraments profaned: Men crown the crow, they have given the jackal wings.
From Poems by Stuart, Muriel
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.
