gentlewomanlike

English

Etymology

gentlewoman +‎ -like

Adjective

gentlewomanlike (comparative more gentlewomanlike, superlative most gentlewomanlike)

1. Characteristic of a gentlewoman; having the qualities of a gentlewoman.
   • 1862, Melesina Chenevix St. George Trench, Richard Chenevix Trench, The Remains of the Late Mrs. Richard Trench, page 113:

     She is good-looking, civil, and gentlewomanlike.

   • 1874, Charles Greville, Henry Reeve, The Greville Memoirs, page 335:

     His wife, who was a coarse, vulgar woman, in the meantime died, and he afterwards married the daughter of an innkeeper , who proved as gentlewomanlike as the other had been the reverse, and who is very pretty besides.

   • 1898, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Christmas Books of Mr. M.A. Titmarsh: Etc, page 108:

     Those who have marked her conduct during her maidenhood, her distinguished politeness, her spotless modesty of demeanour, her unalterable coolness under all circumstances, and her lofty and gentlewomanlike bearing, must be sure that her married conduct would equal her spinster behaviour, and that Rowena the wife would be a pattern of correctness for all the matrons of England.

Adverb

gentlewomanlike (comparative more gentlewomanlike, superlative most gentlewomanlike)

1. In a manner befitting a gentlewoman.
   • 1596, John Payne Collier, Miscellaneous tracts: temp. Eliz. & Jac. 1 - Volumes 9-11, page 101:

     For you shall have some, yea many thousands, that live uppon nothing els, and yet go clothed gentlewomanlike both in their silks, and otherwyse, with their fingers clogged with rings, their wrists with bracelets and jewels, and their purses full of gold and silver.

   • 1985, Lena Cowen Orlin, Man's house as his castle in Elizabethan domestic tragedy, page 204:

     To clarify the spirit in which he undertakes the repayment of his loan, Mountford dresses himself "gentlemanlike" and requires Susan to dress "gentlewomanlike."

   • 1998, English Studies in Canada, page 21:

     It is this contamination of the outward appearance of gentility by actual “unchaste” behaviour that helps to work Stubbes into puritan fury and fuels his vituperative attack on those women who maintain themselves in high style by whoredom, “and yet go clothed Gentlewomanlike."