a. and adv. [f. LADY sb. + -LIKE.] A. adj.
1. Of a woman: Having the distinctive appearance or manner of a lady. Also (in early use chiefly) said sarcastically of men: Effeminately delicate or solicitous about elegance or propriety. † In a personification: Comparable to a lady; queenly.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 30. And Madera, famous for the Wines which grow therin, and the lady-like Iland of all the Atlantique sea.
1656. Artif. Handsom., 179. Some of these so rigid, yet very spruce and Ladylike preachers, think fit to gratifie as their own persons, so their kind hearers and spectators.
1756. Cowper, Lett. to Town, Wks. (1837), XV. 262. Those lady-like gentlemen, whom we may distinguish by the title of their mother’s own sons.
1813. Examiner, 8 March, 156/2. Miss Smith is a very lady-like actress.
1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, viii. (1870), 196. He is a very lady-like poet.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxi. Tell me now, how look I, thus disposed on the couch—languishing and ladylike, ha?
1852. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 199. A pretty, ladylike, rather silly young woman.
2. Befitting a lady; resembling what pertains to a lady; sometimes with depreciatory sense, effeminately delicate or graceful.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., II. ix. (1592), 37. With fingers Ladie-like.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., II. 686. The dew-drops on her silken hide Her tender constitution did declare Too lady-like a long fatigue to bear.
1698. Crowne, Caligula, I. Dram. Wks. 1874, IV. 358. A manly daring soul lurks deep, Under this gentle lady-like outside.
1739. Cibber, Apol. (1756), II. 31. After a few days of these coy lady-like compliances on his side, we grew into a more conversable temper.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (1781), III. xvii. 137. Perhaps you mean no more than to give a little specimen of Lady-like pride in those words.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xi. The controversy began in smooth, oily, lady-like terms, but is now waxing more sour and eager as we get on.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 216. Her lady-like spirit would have scorned the idea of selling them.
1877. Mrs. Forrester, Mignon, I. 53. You have not a very lady-like way of expressing yourself.
1891. L. Falconer, Mlle. Ixe, i. (1891), 20. ‘I hope you will teach Evelyn some of these pretty things,’ said Mrs. Merrington. ‘There is something so ladylike about them.’
1900. Skeat, Chaucer Canon, 139. Both [poems] … are wholly lacking in interesting touches of personal character. Whatever opinions they express are of a highly genteel and ladylike order.
Hence Ladylikeness.
1875. Howells, Foregone Concl. (1882), 305. He remembered the charm of her perfect ladylikeness.
† B. adv. As a lady does; in the guise of a lady. Obs.
a. 1635. Corbet, Poems (1807), 126. Nor didst thou two years after talk of force, Or, lady-like, make suit for a divorce.
c. 1650. Roxburgh Ballads (1888), VI. 544. Achilles he was in disguise, When first he heard of this enterprize, He Lady-like with a Lady lay.
