lovely
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L323434 on Wikidata ↗adjective
- beautiful
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈlʌv.li/ / [ˈlʌv.lɪi̯]
adj
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.
- 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!”
adv
Etymology: From Middle English lovely, luveliche, from Old English luflīċe (“lovingly, amiably, kindly, dearly, with good will or love, willingly”), equivalent to love + -ly.
- 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.”
name
Etymology: From lovely.
- A surname.
- An unincorporated community in Martin County, Kentucky, United States.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English lovely, luvelich, lufli, from Old English luflīċ, luflīc (“amiable, loving, lovable”), equivalent to love + -ly.
- An attractive, lovely person, especially a (professional) beauty.
“a calendar depicting young lovelies in bikinis”
“"I'd sooner be on the stage than anywhere else." "You mean you like being cocked up in front of an audience with nothing much on and getting a thrill out of being what those idiotic newspapers call a Lovely or a Glamour Girl. With all the damned glamour on the stage and none off it."”
- Term of fond address.
“Goodbye, my lovely.”
“But where do you go to my lovely / When you're alone in your bed?”
- 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.”