adjective
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resembling a pearl, esp in lustre
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of the colour pearl; pale bluish-grey
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decorated with pearls or mother-of-pearl
noun
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a London costermonger who wears on ceremonial occasions a traditional dress of dark clothes covered with pearl buttons
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(plural) the clothes or the buttons themselves
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pearly
First recorded in 1400–50, pearly is from the late Middle English word peerly. See pearl, -y 1
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:
The school’s new superintendent, Michael Borgschulte, an amiable lieutenant general with a Bronze Star and a pearly white set of teeth, steps onto the bandstand.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
"Thank you dentist" she smiled on the red carpet, showing off those pearly whites.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
“Do I fit the criteria in terms of Christianity and in regard to St. Peter and pearly gates?”
From Salon ● Oct. 19, 2025
Wood, whose pearly whites and “White Lotus” character were mocked, said in a since-expired Instagram story that she found the bit “mean and unfunny.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025
Perhaps the most beautiful type of dragon, it has iridescent, pearly scales and glittering, multi-coloured, pupil-less eyes, hence its name.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
And what is most remembered about a performance to Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings” is “the transcendent scene of 17 women onstage, swathed in the palest and pearliest of blues.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2024
The world's shiniest, smoothest, pearliest eggs to impress your friends with.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2022
Finding the pearliest treasures at shorelines called for avoiding crocodiles, spiny urchins and “burning sea slime,” Claudia Swan, one of the essayists, points out.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
Another man, who didn’t make a movie until he was 50, had the pearliest record of all.
From Time ● Jan. 9, 2014
Her voice was the pearliest, most musical, and yet most distant of things.
From Helbeck of Bannisdale — Volume I by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
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.
