priestlikeadj.adv.

1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) iv. l. 706 Than Wallas..Arayit him weill in-till a preistlik goun.

1559 J. Aylmer Harborowe sig. O4^v Let your portion be priestlike and not princelike.

?1592 A. Willet Sacrorum Emblematum Centuria Una sig. C.2 The Priestlike garments you shall see, with gold and stones beset to be.

1602 W. Watson Decacordon Ten Quodlibeticall Questions 345 A very learned, religious, and priestlike apology.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) v. i. 56 We haue suppler Soules Then in our Priest-like Fasts. View more context for this quotation

1641 Arminian Nunnery 4 The Priestlike Prolocutor did not want a premeditated excusive Iustification.

1771 T. Nugent tr. B. Cellini Life I. iv. 82 At last we came into the presence of this reverend prelate, who uttered the most priest-like, Spaniard-like words that I ever heard.

a1796 R. Burns Poetry (1896) 111 The priest-like father reads the sacred page, How Abram was the friend of God on high.

a1821 J. Keats Last Sonn. The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores.

1831 T. Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. Mar. 132/1 There is something priest-like in that Life of his.

1883 Weekly Hawk-eye (Burlington, Iowa) 8 Feb. 8/5 The same smooth-shaven, priest-like face..whose look never lowered from the faces of the vast congregation.

1921 Clearfield (Pa.) Progress 28 Nov. 6/3 Clothed from neck to foot in a black priest-like gown.

1960 R. Davies Voice from Attic i. 5 The implication is still that the layman's opposite has not merely special knowledge, but a secret and priestlike vocation.

2003 Prague Post (Nexis) 22 May In person, the young woman comes across quite differently: self-contained, calm, almost priestlike in her steady detachment.

1565 T. Stapleton Fortresse of Faith f. 152 Hazard their liuinges rather then go priestlike.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) i. ii. 239 I haue trusted thee..With all the neerest things to my heart, as well My Chamber-Councels, wherein (Priest-like) thou Hast cleans'd my Bosome. View more context for this quotation

1873 E. Gosse On Viol & Flute 133 A vision of Christ Himself, who, priestlike, waved His wounded hands, and rose and came to me.

1881 C. A. Swinburne Mary Stuart i. ii. 52 No babes reared priestlike at the paps of Rome.

1900 W. Alexander Finding of Bk. 150 The free aspersion of a rain of gifts Priestlike Thou wavedst to and fro, O God!

1966 Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 24 July 9/2 Men move priestlike through the countryside in flowing abeyahs.

1984 C. Brooke-Rose Amalgamemnon 20 My words will carve through dungeon walls and I shall crawl priestlike through the hole into a neighbouring cell, carrying a secret about buried treasure.