worldly-wise
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of worldly-wise
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
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.
Bellamy version 2.0 may well be more worldly-wise, more focused, more able to channel the passion for the game and his country that has always run deep.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2024
In the end, this ragtag band finally acquires the sutra scrolls from a surprisingly worldly-wise Buddha and achieves a kind of sainthood for themselves.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2021
I loved Ferrell first and foremost because she looked and sounded like my people — red-haired and rotund, but worldly-wise and dry rather than jolly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2020
McGuane’s small-time lawyers and bank managers, his car dealers and crooks and confirmed bachelors, are more worldly-wise — and consequently more world-weary — than Taylor’s Memphis society boys.
From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2018
My long tramp through the mud left me tuckered out and just too worldly-wise to go along with the teen scene.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
