Meaning of motherlily | Babel Free

Definitions

In a motherly manner.

rare

Examples

“Why do I feel⟳ the need⟳ to add⟳ a second "-ly" to adjectives already ending in "-ly" when abverbializing them? […] "Don't worry⟳ about it," she reassured him motherlily.”

“For a long minute they embraced, as though mother and child, each needing the other. Moneeq, now down on one knee, looked Nick motherlily in the eye.”

“When you see⟳ Joyous beam, you beam. Bart beams warmly. […] The shape⟳ of his gonads must set⟳ the ambit of his emotions? No. Fathers worry⟳ about the little bugger’s sport’s prowess. What Bart feels like⟳ is mother. He notices that the more orthodoxly mother-type person next to him is not beaming motherlily. She is not beaming at all. Her mouth is set⟳ like⟳ the wardress of Belsen wishing to boil Joyous’s chubby cheeks into candle wax.”

“Ghostlily, motherlily, manlily, beastlily are all dictionary-approved but prohibitively awkward, as is, in another way, lily-liveredly, Likylikely, though . . . […] In American English, at least, there seems to be no way to say⟳ something along these lines: “For the nine months I carried you, growing inside me, no charge,” Tammy Wynette sang motherlily.”

“The adjectival suffix -ly, which attaches to person nouns, does not generally allow⟳ a subsequent -ly: *gentlemanlily, *motherlily, *neighbourlily, *womanlily.”

““It’s going to be fine,” Mother said in her soothing motherly voice. “Is it?” I whispered. “Yes squishy Josh, it will,” she motherlily soothed me.”

CEFR level