Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Quite large; considerable.
- adjective Of pleasing appearance; comely.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Good-looking; of fair proportions or fine appearance; graceful; well-favored; well formed or developed: as, a goodly person; goodly raiment.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable.
- Considerable; rather large or great: as, a goodly number.
- In a good manner; gracefully; excellently; kindly.
- Well; properly.
- Conveniently.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Pleasant; agreeable; desirable.
- adjective Of pleasing appearance or character; comely; graceful
- adjective Large; considerable; portly.
- adverb obsolete Excellently.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective archaic
good , pleasing in appearance - adjective archaic Quite large; considerable: a goodly sum.
- adverb obsolete In a goodly way;
courteously ,graciously .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective large in amount or extent or degree
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Excuse me, for I thought not that the Sultan would come hither; and, had I known that, I would have killed a couple of chickens and entertained him in goodly guise.
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Princess (and indeed she was drowned in the sea of her desire and the fire of her passion and love-longing) broke out, O my nurse, how goodly is this youth!
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And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent,
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Fisherman; whereupon Khalifah cried, How goodly is thy bounty, O Tulip!
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There he and his companions were entertained in goodly fashion, feasting every day and holding pious disputations.
This Country of Ours: The Story of the United States Henrietta Elizabeth 1917
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Pastors 'wives and village teachers were found in goodly number, while not a few of the quiet home keepers had left the family cares for a few days that they, too, might sit at the feet of Jesus in company with other sisters and learn what He would have them to do in order that His kingdom might be quickly extended.
Daughters of India 1908
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Then this blessed lady, seeing this, called him by his name goodly and said: Brother Adrian, dread ye nothing, for I am come to you for your good honour and profit.
The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900
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a beginning to this new Christian community, I baptized a goodly number of children already capable of reason.
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When the Caliph heard this, he said, “O Ja’afar, how goodly is that voice!”
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Every seventh day his governors reported to the King what his son had learnt and mastered, whereby Jali’ad became proficient in goodly learning and fair culture, and the Olema said to him,
bilby commented on the word goodly
"CORIOLANUS: A goodly city is this Antium. City,
'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir
Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars
Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.
August 29, 2009
Logophile77 commented on the word goodly
seldom use goodly. use well.
December 8, 2017