a. [f. QUEEN sb. + -LY1. OE. had cwénlic in the sense of ‘feminine.’]
1. Belonging to, appropriate to, a queen.
c. 1540. Cromwell, Lett. to Hen. VIII., in Burnet, Rec. (1779), I. III. 193. I answered and said … that I thought she had a Queenly manner.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. D iij. He deprived her of all queenly honour.
1570. Foxe, A. & M., I. 546. Whether they shal be eyther of regal, quenely, or imperial dignitie.
1849. [W. M. W. Call], Reverberations, II. 2.
| Soon Alcestis,… | |
| With a queenlier presence, stature higher, | |
| Stept forth. |
1878. Gladstone, Prim. Homer, 133. In the Odyssey Helen reappears full of queenly dignity.
2. Resembling a queen; queenlike. Also fig.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 87. That queenly flower becomes the water.
1854. Doran, Habits & Men, 104. Anne of Denmark … did not look queenly even in Elizabeth’s robes.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1875), III. xi. 33. It had brought forth its queenly leaves and its kingly fruit.
Comb. 1871. Amy Dutton, Streets & Lanes, i. 32. A queenly-looking old lady.
So Queenly adv., in the manner of a queen.
a. 1851. Moir, To a wounded Ptarmigan, vi. The wild swan from the lake, Ice-unfetter’d oar’d it queenly.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s Field, 169. Queenly responsive when the loyal hand Rose … as she past.
