matronly
/ˈmeɪtɹənli/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.90 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
In the capacity of a matron; serving as a housekeeper or head nurse.
adj
Exuding the authority, wisdom, power, and intelligence of an experienced woman.
Example Sentences
- "The door opened, but it was to admit a middle-aged matronly lady with good-humour and domestic capability proclaimed by every detail of her smiling face and easy manner."
- "c. 1977, Janeane Garofalo, a skit the matronly upper arms girls know about life and love and losing"
- "27 April 2009, LA Times https://web.archive.org/web/20090427074230/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/04/susan-boyle-gets-a-makeover-is-she-going-hollywood-already.html Gone is her matronly gray frizzy hair and those bushy brows, frumpy frock and old lady pearls."
- "The mother dressed matronly, in a bonnet and in black, always sat between her two big daughters, firm, directing, and repressed."
- "She was the same height and weight as Mother and had the same hairdo and dressed matronly like her. It was scary. She looked so much like Mother."
- "“I had to dress matronly to get the position. I've had trouble with that before. I have actually been turned away for a position as stewardess because I was too pretty.”"
Etymology
Etymology tree English matron Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Middle English -ly English -ly English matronly From matron + -ly.
Inflected Forms
more matronly (comparative)
most matronly (superlative)