clerkly

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Of clerks

   Of clerks; befitting a clerk.

   • the clerkly life
   • Therefore, desiring to keep my place in the young Tsar’s regard, I did not speak too highly of Mazeppa, though I allowed him to be a shrewd and capable person, of clerkly rather than military attainments.
   • Ida Arnold swivelled her eyes round the elegant furnishing of the Pompadour Boudoir. They picked out like a searchlight a cushion, a couch, the thin clerkly mouth of the man opposite her.
2. 2

   Scholarly.

   • For notwithstanding al your great brags and this your clerkly booke, ye knowe not nor euer shall knowe, but that the Pope is the supreame head of the Churche.
   • Hath he not tvvit our Soueraigne Lady here / VVith ignominious vvords, though Clarkely coucht? / As if ſhe had ſuborned ſome to ſvveare / Falſe allegations, to o'rethrovv his ſtate.
3. 3

   In a scholarly manner.

   • If these woordis to some seme spoken to clerkly, goe to, I will expounde theim more plainely.
   • Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here With ignominious words, though clerkly couch’d, As if she had suborned some to swear False allegations to o’erthrow his state?

The neighborhood