adjective
-
resembling a pearl, esp in lustre
-
of the colour pearl; pale bluish-grey
-
decorated with pearls or mother-of-pearl
noun
-
a London costermonger who wears on ceremonial occasions a traditional dress of dark clothes covered with pearl buttons
-
(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:
We would like to leave no moment uncaptured, would like to at least try to become pearly, hairless, omniscient idealized beings, even if this desire lurks somewhere beneath what we’d consciously admit.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026
Some people watching last week's eclipse did see this familiar pearly color.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 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
Approaching Neverly, he spotted a fresh crop of pearly mushrooms climbing her trunk.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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 Mrs. Humphry Ward
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.
