shapely
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- shapeliness noun
- unshapeliness noun
- unshapely adjective
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.
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
The carpeted showroom featured shapely mannequins in sequined, imported gowns, but their faces had been covered by masks or wigs, in obedience to Taliban instructions.
From Washington Post • Aug. 11, 2022
He had bony legs, a narrow waist, long shapely fingers.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
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.
