earthly

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Relating to the earth or this world, as opposed to heaven or the heavens.

   • The Garden of Earthly Delights is full of earthly joys alongside grotesqueries, monstrosities, and torture.
   • The shadows of earth and earthly things, resting omen-like upon the waters, alone shewed which was the home and which the mirror of the celestial host.
2. 2

   Made of earth

   Made of earth; earthy.

   • We have this […] treasure in frail, brittle, and earthly vessels.
3. 3

   Used in negative contructions for emphasis.

   • There is no earthly way, I mean no way on earth, that I will ever do that.
   • The pressures of politics and war seem remote on this lovely stretch of California coastline, but last week there was no earthly way to avoid them.
   • In fiscal terms, there’s no earthly reason for Congress to be stingy with Social Security’s administrative budget.
4. ›+ 4 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      That which is of the earth or earthly

      That which is of the earth or earthly; a terrestrial being.

      • He claims that the book directs the believer to let go of the earthly and await God's kingdom in the heavenly.
      • So, let all earthlies and celestials wait / Upon Thy royal state! / Sleep, sleep, my kingly One!
   2. 5

      A slightest chance (of success etc.) or idea (about something).

      • He arched his eyebrows over the summons. "The poor devil has not an earthly!" said he. "He's lucky to have a summons. Usually they act on a warrant."
      • You're here, aren't you, if it comes to a bunk but we're there, cut off so to speak, and if anything slips, like what that bloke makes out in his letter, we shan't have half an earthly.
      • ‘Then I didn't have a chance when I stood you a drink?’ I said. ‘Not an earthly!’ she said and laughed; but when I left she kissed me good-night.
   3. 6

      in an earthly manner.

      • But earthlyer happy is the roſe diſtild, / Then that, vvhich, vvithering on the virgin thorne, / Grovves, liues, and dies, in ſingle bleſſedneſſe.
      • And here again we observe the great advantage of the heavenly over the earthly appointed courts.
   4. 7

      Alternative letter-case form of earthly (“relating to the Earth”).

      • The Earthly chronometer will indeed indicate that several decades have passed; whereas the spacely chronometer will indicate instead that several years have passed.
      • My parents had shown us lots of videos of home and if this was a sound an Earthly creature made, it wasn’t one on any of those videos.

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