stately
English
Etymology
From state + -ly. Compare stour.
Pronunciation
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Audio (UK): (file)
Adjective
stately (comparative statelier, superlative stateliest)
- Of people: worthy of respect; dignified, regal.
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
- Warwick's first glance had revealed the fact that the young woman was strikingly handsome, with a stately beauty seldom encountered.
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
- Of movement: deliberate, unhurried; dignified.
- 2010 October 14, “An Own Goal on Gay Rights”, in The Economist:
- And much as they welcome his promise to repeal "don't ask, don't tell", they are dismayed by the stately pace and bungled tactics of his attempts to do so.
- Grand, impressive, imposing.
- 1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 55:
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.
- 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:
- Below is the deep abyss of the Lauterbrunnen valley, and at its head a stately semi-circle of mountains, with the pyramidal Lauterbrunnen Breithorn as the centre-piece.
- 1986, John le Carré [pseudonym; David John Moore Cornwell], A Perfect Spy:
- Flora is a good scout, a favourite with the jockeys on account of her stately breasts and the generous use she puts them to.
Derived terms
Translations
worthy of respect
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Adverb
stately (comparative more stately, superlative most stately)
- In a stately manner.