queenly

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwiːnli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English queenly, quenly, from Old English cwēnlīċ, equivalent to queen +‎ -ly.

Adjective

queenly (comparative queenlier, superlative queenliest)

1. Having the status, rank or qualities of a queen; regal.
   • 1860, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], The Mill on the Floss […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     So Maggie, glad of anything that would soothe her mother, and cheer their long day together, consented to the vain decoration, and showed a queenly head above her old frocks, steadily refusing, however, to look at herself in the glass.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     There was an innate refinement, a languid queenly hauteur about Gerty which was unmistakably evidenced in her delicate hands and higharched instep.

   • 2018, Queen True, “A Royal Stink”, in True and the Rainbow Kingdom:

     I'm so sorry. If I'd done my queenly duties right, none of this would have happened. But maybe I can fix it with some wish help.

2. Resembling a queen (a typically feminine gay man); queenish.
   • 1990 December 23, Christopher Wittke, “Pop Goes 1990”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 23, page 9:

     The Pet Shop Boys are yet another synth-pop duo, albeit one that is not quite out of the closet. […] In past interviews, however, they [the Pet Shop Boys] have referred to their sound as "specifically gay disco," and their lyrics have that certain queenly something that lead singer Neil Tennant sings with an adorable sibilance.

Synonyms

• queenlike
• reginal

Derived terms

• queenliness

Etymology 2

From queen +‎ -ly.

Adverb

queenly (comparative queenlier, superlative queenliest)

1. In a queenly manner; regally.

Synonyms

• queenlily
• reginally