ladylike
advEtymology From lady + -like.
1
In the manner of a lady.
- Mirrin had lifted her second cup of tea, holding it, ladylike, with finger and thumb of her right hand while her left palm supported the saucer.1976, Jessica Stirling [pseudonym; Hugh Crauford Rae], The Hiring Fair, Coronet Books, published 1998, →ISBN, page 271:
- Men prefer feminine women, and there’s nothing feminine about hippos. They can’t walk ladylike, they can’t sit ladylike, and God forbid they should have to run!1980 April 21, Been There [pseudonym], “Dear Abby: Americans Want More Than Orientals Express”, in The Daily News Journal, 132nd year, number 44, Murfreesboro, Tenn., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11, column 5:
1 more example
- So they sent me to an aunt who’d married off the water and kept a shop in Islington. She was kind enough, in her way. Taught me to speak ladylike . . . well, ladylike enough to pass in the shop.1998, Patricia Grey, chapter 22, in Cutter’s Wharf, large print edition, Anstey, Leicestershire: Charnwood, F. A. Thorpe (Publishing), published 2001, →ISBN, page 238:
- Related terms
- young-lady-like, gentlemanly, etiquette