[f. WOMAN sb. + -LY1.]
1. Possessing the attributes proper to a woman; having the qualities (as of gentleness, devotion, fearfulness, etc.) characteristic of women; also said of these qualities or of actions which exhibit them.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 106. .O. wommanlyche wyf. Ibid., IV. 694 (Camb. MS.). Þo wordis & þo womanliche þyngis Sche herde riȝt nouȝt þow sche þere were. Ibid. (c. 1385), L. G. W., 175. So womanly so benygne & so meke. Ibid. (c. 1386), Knt.’s T., 2225. Youre wommanly pitee.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. xii. (Skeat), l. 114. So precious perle, as a womanly woman in her kynde.
1421. Hoccleve, Jereslaus’s Wife, 466. A lady the womanlyeste Of cheere.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., III. 525. Your person, ittis so womanly.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 115 b. Where was her womanly pitie?
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 69. She coulde scarcely conteine hir selfe from embracing him, had not womanly shamefastnes … stayed hir wisedome.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, I. iii. Be womanly, Win; make an outcry to your mother, Win!
1676. Dryden, Aurengz., IV. 54. Rage choaks my words: ’tis Womanly to weep.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 272, ¶ 1. One who was growing up to the same womanly Virtues which shine to Perfection in her.
1805. Southey, Madoc, I. xvii. 132. Womanly sobs were heard, and manly cheeks Were wet with silent tears.
1852. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), III. 235. Lady Goldsmid (that impersonation of all that is womanly and motherly).
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 3. 368. Whatever womanly tenderness she [sc. Elizabeth] had, wrapt itself around Leicester.
b. In derogatory use, with reference to the bad qualities attributed to women; † (of men) effeminate, womanish.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 274. Þet nis nout iwar ne waker ne nis nout monlich, auh is wummonlich.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Kings xiv. 24. Men maad wommanlich weren in the loond.
a. 1400. New Test. (Paues), 1 Pet. iii. 7. Departynge to hem worschupe, as to a wommanlyche vessel þat is more febel þan ȝe beþ.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 228 b. Nyce aray, and new fangled garmentis, welthy fare and ydelnes: make men to be womanly.
1538. Elyot, Dict., s.v., Mollis, Mollis homo, a man effemynate, or womanlye.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 57 b. For very womanly malice, she set in the highest authoritie aboute the kyng her husband.
1558. Knox, First Blast (Arb.), 21. Lest that again she slide and fall by womanlie facilitie.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 23. Burning with a womanly spleen.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., to Lady X—, 1 Oct. (1887), I. 128. The womanly spirit of contradiction.
1830. G. P. R. James, De L’Orme, I. xvii. 325. Señor, are you a man? I would not, for very shame, have any one see you look so womanly.
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xix. Has she baffled me by some piece of womanly jugglery?
2. Having the character of, befitting or characteristic of, a woman as contrasted with a girl.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 15, ¶ 2. The Girl was very proud of the Womanly Employment of a Nurse.
1732. Arbuthnot, Aliments, Rules of Diet (1736), 408. Young Persons under a womanly Age.
1753–4. Richardson, Grandison, II. xxxvi. 279. The girl begins to be womanly.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iii. A short, brown, womanly girl of fourteen. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., xv. A very little girl … wearing a womanly sort of bonnet much too large for her.
3. Belonging or proper to the female sex.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xliv. Her early training had kept her aloof from such womanly labours.
a. 1873. Lytton, Pausanias (1876), 90. Cleonice … had enjoyed those advantages of womanly education wholly unknown at that time to the freeborn ladies of Greece.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 146. Many types of manly and womanly beauty.
