Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Neat and orderly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pitiable; miserable.
- Pitiably; miserably.
- Conforming to rule; not unruly; acting rightly; righteous.
- Orderly; well-regulated.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Orderly; easily restrained; -- opposed to
unruly .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb
Pitiably ;miserably . - adjective
Pitiable ;miserable . - adjective
neat andorderly
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective neat and tidy
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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"Honestly, I'll take back all [alleged] racist remarks and never do it again, truly ruly, please believe me [flutters eyes beguilingly]."
Archive 2009-07-01 2009
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I've been talking to people here, they're pretty -- you know, they've been very ruly, and we're up above the crowd.
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"Honestly, I'll take back all [alleged] racist remarks and never do it again, truly ruly, please believe me [flutters eyes beguilingly]."
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Do not vote -- individually, in droves, as a family, as a community, as a congregation, as a ruly mob, whatever feels most congenial.
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But, as Vincent Canby of The New York Times observed at the belated premiere of I Am Curious (Yellow), “The crowds were large, mostly middle-aged and ruly.”
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But, as Vincent Canby of The New York Times observed at the belated premiere of I Am Curious (Yellow), “The crowds were large, mostly middle-aged and ruly.”
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Are they going to be ruly, will it get out of hand?
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Washington D.C., ruly aftermath, unruly aftermath, that is, of all things, at a homeland security press conference.
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T ruly, the tide has turned, in the mere space of nine years, the government has brought changes that have completely confounded both friend and foe.
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T ruly, the tide has turned, in the mere space of nine years, the government has brought changes that have completely confounded both friend and foe.
hernesheir commented on the word ruly
Wordnik's etymological definition states it is a back-formation of unruly. So what does ruly mean, and why is the "un" gloss presumed to have come first?
December 9, 2010
qroqqa commented on the word ruly
Unable to face the OED's new website, I'm going to guess that a noun 'unrule' is attested first (cf. extant 'misrule').
December 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ruly
I'm going to take this opportunity to plug reesetee's Prosie "How I Met My Wife", which I dearly love.
December 9, 2010
reesetee commented on the word ruly
Aw, shucks. *blushing*
OED has a new website? *trembles*
December 9, 2010