shapely
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of shapely
1325–75; shape + -ly; replacing Middle English shaply, schaply; compare Old English gesceaplīce (adv.) fitly
Explanation
Use the adjective shapely to describe someone whose body has an attractive shape. You might start going to the gym to run and lift weights with the goal of becoming more shapely. The word shapely most often describes a woman, but there's no reason you can't use it to talk about a nicely shaped man as well. You could describe a mountain climber you know as being physically fit, with shapely legs, or complain that fashion magazines are full of identical shapely models, with no variation of body types. Shapely has been used in English since the fourteenth century, from the Old English root word gesceap, or "creation, form, or destiny."
Vocabulary lists containing shapely
American Street
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Jazz
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Unassuming from the outside, the shop opens into a huge ark of mortar-crusted brick and ribcage-like beams, with long dining tables displaying shapely vases, pitchers, teacups and plates in shades of apricot, amber and malachite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
“It’s a Urania Klein,” my friend said, as he lifted the shapely antique typewriter from his car trunk.
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2024
He says he took the above photo when "like so many others that day and on countless days before us, we rested awhile at Sycamore Gap admiring the tree's shapely tenacity and vigour".
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2023
In the afternoon, as camaraderie developed over botches and breakthroughs, we alternated between rolling and raising our wheat dough and, every 30 minutes, stretching and folding the sourdough, which gradually went from sticky to shapely.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
Cuvier was already dazzling people with his genius for taking heaps of disarticulated bones and whipping them into shapely forms.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Raimi was capable of shapelier storytelling than this.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
The documentary could have been shapelier and better focused, but it packs lots of information and even more emotion.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 2023
A leaner show with a shapelier through line might have been made by centering the series on any one of the journalists who hustle across the screen.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 18, 2018
Standing erect, he might easily have been mistaken for a slightly built and shapelier variety of the gorilla but for the true man-hands and the steady, contemplative, foreseeing look in the eyes.
From In the Morning of Time by Roberts, Charles George Douglas, Sir
Her hair looked curlier, her figure was shapelier, her teeth shone whiter, and her cheeks were a lusty, overbearing red.
From Lin McLean by Wister, Owen
It is hard not to fall in love with a beautiful, brilliant creature who changes genders while galloping across three centuries on a pair of “the shapeliest legs” in the land.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2019
U.S. women, who are credited with having the shapeliest legs in the world, last week faced the horrifying knowledge that soon they would have to go silk-stockingless.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Hatfield Peverel, England, the Rev. Brian Mahood judged a women's ankle-beauty contest, then took off his socks and won the prize for the shapeliest male ankles.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her hair was black, save when the sun shone on it and revealed strands of golden brown; it was simply arrayed, and knotted on the whitest and shapeliest neck in Christendom.
From The Disentanglers by Lang, Andrew
And not only the smallest, but also the shapeliest.
From Europe After 8:15 by Benton, Thomas H.
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.
