OE Beowulf (2008) 1940 Ne bið swylc cwenlic þeaw idese to efnanne, þeah ðe hio ænlicu sy, þætte freoðuwebbe feores onsæce æfter ligetorne leofne mannan.

a1450 St. Katherine (Richardson 44) (1884) 57 (MED) Whan þey ladde þe queene to torment..þey..smoot yren hokes in hir queenly tetes.

1540 T. Cromwell Let. 30 June in R. B. Merriman Life & Lett. T. Cromwell (1902) II. 269 I answeryd Saying..that..I thought she hadde a quenlye manner.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 546/1 Whether they shalbe eyther of regal, quenely, or imperial dignitie.

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. viii. vii. 408/2 Neither did shee long enioy him, or her Queenly title, after his aspiring to the Crowne.

1658 G. Swinhoe Trag. Unhappy Fair Irene 22 Let go the Ruines to the unbridled Souldiers, who utterly disdain a Queenly Monarchy.

a1729 E. Taylor Metrical Hist. Christianity (1962) 429 Tame to purchase her a Queenly Crown.

1753 E. Moore Gamester p. vi Those bold Sluts, for all their Queenly Pride, Have play'd loose Tricks.

1790 T. Pennant Of London 276 Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. was a great benefactress to this hospital: and to this day it remains under queenly patronage.

1815 H. H. Milman Fazio iv. iii. 84 Some good old forgotten time, Ere harlotry became a queenly sin, And housed in palaces.

1849 W. M. W. Cull Reverberations ii. 2 Soon Alcestis..With a queenlier presence..Stept forth.

1878 W. E. Gladstone Homer 133 In the Odyssey Helen reappears full of queenly dignity.

1930 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 13 July (Mag.) 7/4 To attain a princessly status which might indeed be elevated to that of a queenly title one day.

1965 Ebony May 188 (caption) Queenly lines characterize this light French imported all-lace sheath with a detachable all-lace underskirt.

2003 H. E. Maurer Margaret of Anjou 2 His condemnation of Margaret also alludes to the idea of a ‘proper’ queenly role as mediator and peacemaker.

1791 in J. Elphinston Forty Years' Corr. between Geniusses ov Boath Sexes V. ii. ii. 99 See queenly Yorks sublime cathedral rise!

1818 E. Elliott Night iv. 130 Beauteous as light, then came a queenly form.

1826 M. R. Mitford Our Village II. 243 That queenly flower becomes the water.

1854 J. Doran Habits & Men 104 Anne of Denmark..did not look queenly even in Elizabeth's robes.

1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest III. xi. 34 It had brought forth its queenly leaves and its kingly fruit.

1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover i. 3 Why couldn't a girl be queenly, and give the gift of herself?

1963 N. Bawden Secret Passage iv. 59 She looked at Ben. ‘You'll come again, won't you?’ She sounded quavery and humble, suddenly, not queenly at all.

1999 R. Tremain Music & Silence (2000) ii. 233 Separate from the King, separate from her mother, she appears queenly, magnificent, a woman to be worshipped.

1933 Brevities (N.Y.) 8 May 8/1 Thousands of ‘queers’ have descended upon the city, staging gala parties, drags and other hotcha queenly antics.

1968 Listener 11 July 59/3 Paul Scofield..is using his queenliest Staircase manner to play a bisexual script-writer.

1976 Times 5 Apr. 6/8 A..rumour went around that the play was really about homosexuals. Certainly some of the dialogue does have a queenly tinge.

2004 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 12 Feb. 4/1 [He] discovers that his lover, a wisecracking, unabashedly queenly Mayflower descendant,..has been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, an early sign of AIDS.

a1839 in C. M. Sedgwick Lett. from Abroad (1841) I. 95 I was introduced to Mrs. Norton, who is herself a most queenly-looking creature, a Semiramis, a Sappho, or an Amazon.

1871 A. Dutton Streets & Lanes i. 32 A queenly-looking old lady.

1971 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 26 Feb. 24/1 A queenly-looking, long-sleeved gown patterned in pink and white.

2002 Flare (Nexis) Oct. 40 Whenever I saw her on television as a child, I remember feeling disappointed she wasn't more, well, queenly looking... Where was the staff, the jewels, the sash, the crown, the royal glitter?

1840 T. Westwood Poems 127 The young moon, queenly fair, With pure, and pale, and cloudless light, Illumes the azure air.

a1851 D. M. Moir To Wounded Ptarmigan in Poet. Wks. (1852) I. 114 The wild swan o'er the lake, Ice-unfetter'd, oar'd it queenly.

1864 Ld. Tennyson Aylmer's Field in Enoch Arden, etc. 60 Queenly responsive when the loyal hand Rose..as she past.

1908 J. Mackay From Maori Sea 14 That will not warp nor wilt although the frost Besiege its root with hard and fast endeavour; But laughs right queenly to the Borean host Of Merrie Dancers, laughing back for ever!

a1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 31 And the moon that went so queenly, shaking her glistening beams is dead too.