[f. YEOMAN + -LY1.]
1. Having the rank, or the character, of a yeoman.
1576. A. Hall, Acc. Quarrel w. Mallerie, etc., Misc. Antiq. Angl. (1816), I. 97. A yeomanly man.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, xv. (1594), H 6 b. I warrant you hees as yeomanly a man, as you shall see, marke you maisters, heeres a plaine honest man, without welt or garde.
1621. Donne, Serm., 1 Cor. xv. 26 (1640), 148. Who will undertake to sift those dusts again, and to pronounce, This is the Patrician, this is the noble flowre, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebeian bran?
1680. Aubrey, in Lett. Emin. Persons (1813), III. 530. His father was an yeomanly man.
1853. Raine, in Richmond Wills (Surtees), 36, note. The Fells were and are still a clan of yeomanly gentry in the neighbourhood of Ulverston.
2. Pertaining to, characteristic of, or befitting a yeoman; (a) sturdy; (b) homely.
c. 1626. Donne, Serm., Ps. xxxviii. 4 (1649), 181. Hee will come to think it … a sordid, a yeomanly thing, still to be plowing, and weeding, and worming a conscience.
1641. Milton, Reform., I. 28. A homely and Yeomanly Religion.
1673. S. Parker, Reproof Reh. Transp., 30. It is but a blunt and Yeomanly Jest.
1827. Blackw. Mag., XXII. 596. Merry Shrovetide, with its rustic feast, and yeomanly feats.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. Going to Races. One of a fine yeomanly spirit, not ashamed of his station,… sowing his own corn, driving his own team, and occasionally ploughing his own land.
1897. Howells, Landlord at Lion’s Head, 126. There was something in Jeff’s figure … of a yeomanly vigour.
