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lovely

adj
/ˈlʌv.li/

Etymology

From Middle English lofly, lovely (“praiseworthy; laudatory”), equivalent to lofe + -ly. Cognate with Dutch loffelijk (“laudable, praiseworthy”), German löblich (“commendable, laudable, praiseworthy”), Swedish lovlig (“permissible”). More at lofe, love.

  1. inherited from luflīċ
  2. inherited from lovely

Definitions

  1. Delightful for beauty, harmony, or grace.

    • It's a lovely day and the sun is shining.
    • The music box plays a lovely melody.
    • The castle garden enchants visitors with its lovely blooms.

  2. Nice

    Nice; wonderful.

    • It would be lovely to have a little more money to spend.
    • It is a lovely night, and why should we not prolong our ride a little?"

  3. Inspiring love or friendship

    Inspiring love or friendship; amiable.

    • a most lovely gentlemanlike man
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. Loving, filled with love.

      • seal the title with a lovely kiss

    2. An attractive, lovely person, especially a (professional) beauty.

      • a calendar depicting young lovelies in bikinis
      • Tom Bower’s 2024 book, The House of Beckham, painted a rather snide portrait of the marriage, in which Beckham is constantly surrounded by lovelies, and Victoria is in a constant huff about it.

    3. Term of fond address.

      • Goodbye, my lovely.
      • But where do you go to my lovely / When you're alone in your bed?

    4. A lovely object.

      • In Montréal, the summer months bring in a huge variety of fruits and vegetables and this is the time to preserve them. Preserving can also refer to the storage of these fiber and vitamin rich lovelies.
      • May Bell ironed the last ruffle and then hung the dress in the wardrobe next to her other lovelies.

    5. In a lovely fashion or manner

      In a lovely fashion or manner; beautifully.

      • She's not everyone's cup of tea, what with the way she speaks her mind and doesn't always do her hair in the morning, but she scrubs up lovely.

    6. Worthy of praise.

      • And so he is in the eyes of all who live to his praise. To them every attribute of God is lovely. The holiness and purity of his nature is most lovely to them.
      • He is altogether lovely. O, all our praises of him are poor and low things!
      • О praise the Lord, for the Lord is gracious : О sing praises unto his Name, for it is lovely.

    7. A surname.

    8. An unincorporated community in Martin County, Kentucky, United States.

The neighborhood

Derived

everything in the garden is lovely, lovelify, lovelily, loveliness, lovely and, Lovely Banks, lovely fairywren, lovely fir, lovely jubbly, lovely weather for ducks, unlovely, what a lovely day

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at lovely. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01lovely02amiable03kind-hearted04kindhearted05innately06nature07special08dear

A definitional loop anchored at lovely. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at lovely

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA