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
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Jazz
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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
“Contained Time” is as bright and shapely as a piece of pop art, and yet offers an eerie commentary on science’s ability to denature organic objects.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 23, 2022
He looked at the fingernails hard as her palm skin, and noticed for the first time how shapely her hands were.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
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
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
I pined and fretted; but time went on, and to my misfortune I was growing taller and shapelier.
From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by Sala, George Augustus
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
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
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
At this time there were many growing up to be men in Midfirth; Skald-Torfa dwelt at Torfa's-stead in those days; her son was called Bessi, he was the shapeliest of men and a good skald.
From The Story of Grettir the Strong by Morris, William
They looked so dashing and so grand; they were the tallest, shapeliest fellows.
From The House by the Church-Yard by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
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.
