shapely

English

Etymology

From Middle English schaply, schappely (“well-shaped, beautiful, attractive”), perhaps from Old English *ġesċeaplīċ (“according to design, proper, fit”) (suggested by Old English ġesċeaplīċe (“properly, fitting, well”)), equivalent to shape +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

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Adjective

shapely (comparative shapelier or more shapely, superlative shapeliest or most shapely)

1. Having a pleasing shape, pleasant to look at.
   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:

     The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face.

   • 2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     It used to be, whenever Frank passed a rival butcher’s window (and later the curved glass of a supermarket meat counter), he would peer in unjealously, looking for the subtleties that spoke of talent with a knife. Were their fillets shapely?

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:shapely

Derived terms

• shapeliness

Translations

having a pleasing shape

• Arabic: حَسَن (ar) (ḥasan)
• Armenian: շեն (hy) (šen)
• Bulgarian: строен (bg) (stroen), добре сложен (dobre složen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 凹凸有致 (āotūyǒuzhì), 豐滿／丰满 (zh) (fēngmǎn)

• Czech: úhledný (cs), ladných tvarů
• Finnish: hyvinmuodostunut, sopusuhtainen (fi)
• Hungarian: jóalakú, jóformájú
• Irish: córach, cruthach, cruthúil, cumaí, cumtha, dea-chruthach, dea-chumtha, dealfa, fíortha, greanta
• Italian: formoso (it), tornito (it), prosperoso (it), polputo (it)
• Middle English: schaply
• Polish: zgrabny (pl), kształtny (pl)
• Portuguese: torneado
• Scottish Gaelic: cumachdail
• Spanish: torneado (es), curvilíneo, exuberante (es)

Anagrams

• Shapley, physeal