| 释义 |
ladylike, a. and adv.|ˈleɪdɪlaɪk|
[f. lady n. + -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.
1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 30 And Madera, famous for the Wines which grow therin, and the lady-like Iland of all the Atlantique sea. 1656Artif. 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. 1756Cowper Let. to Town Wks. (1837) XV. 262 Those lady-like gentlemen, whom we may distinguish by the title of their mother's own sons. 1813Examiner 8 Mar. 156/2 Miss Smith is a very lady-like actress. 1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets viii. (1870) 196 He is a very lady-like poet. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxxi, Tell me now, how look I, thus disposed on the couch—languishing and ladylike, ha? 1852Mrs. 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.
1586Warner Alb. Eng. ii. ix. (1592) 37 With fingers Ladie-like. 1687Dryden Hind & P. ii. 686 The dew-drops on her silken hide Her tender constitution did declare Too lady-like a long fatigue to bear. 1698Crowne Caligula i. Dram. Wks. 1874 IV. 358 A manly daring soul lurks deep, Under this gentle lady-like outside. 1739Cibber Apol. (1756) II. 31 After a few days of these coy lady-like compliances on his side, we grew into a more conversable temper. 1754Richardson Grandison (1781) III. xvii. 137 Perhaps you mean no more than to give a little specimen of Lady-like pride in those words. 1816Scott Antiq. xi, The controversy began in smooth, oily, lady-like terms, but is now waxing more sour and eager as we get on. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 216 Her lady-like spirit would have scorned the idea of selling them. 1877Mrs. Forrester Mignon I. 53 You have not a very lady-like way of expressing yourself. 1890L. 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’. 1900Skeat 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 ˈladylikeness.
1875Howells 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.
a1635Corbet Poems (1807) 126 Nor didst thou two years after talk of force, Or, lady-like, make suit for a divorce. c1650Roxburgh Ballads (1888) VI. 544 Achilles he was in disguise, When first he heard of this enterprize, He Lady-like with a Lady lay. |