Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In an arch manner; coyly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In an arch manner; with attractive slyness or roguishness; slyly; waggishly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb in an
arch manner;slyly
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in_an_arch_manner; with playful slyness or roguishness
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Flawed, certainly - a writer can't get away with that kind of archly self-conscious style these days, let alone the heavily didactic tone - but his dog characters, the stoical Rowf and the psychotic terrier Snitter, whose botched brain surgery has rendered him both mad and prophetic, are an unforgettable pair, and we share each nail-biting moment of their journey.
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She said it archly, meaning to suggest that Dick might be jealous.
The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903
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And a body to fix them in, and tanks for oil and petrol, and a tail, and, "archly," one of those dashing young Pilots, what? "
The Aeroplane Speaks 1917
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I giggled archly, wiggling deeper into his embrace.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
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A bit like those curling posters of the Pope smoking a joint that adorned teenage walls in the 1980s, nothing says "I'm 15, white and middle class" like smirking archly in a Nike Get High T-shirt as your mum drops you off at the Richmond Park half-pipe.
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The aesthetic that appreciates kitsch is partly ironic, involving a sort of archly detached amusement.
Archive 2009-03-01 Hal Duncan 2009
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The aesthetic that appreciates kitsch is partly ironic, involving a sort of archly detached amusement.
Hey, Janet! Have You Got Syfy? Hal Duncan 2009
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"Auster coyly celebrates the power of the imagination and marvels over the labyrinthine nature of the mind in an archly playful and shrewdly philosophical tribute to the transcendence of stories."
Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster: Book summary 2010
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I giggled archly, wiggling deeper into his embrace.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
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A bit like those curling posters of the Pope smoking a joint that adorned teenage walls in the 1980s, nothing says "I'm 15, white and middle class" like smirking archly in a Nike Get High T-shirt as your mum drops you off at the Richmond Park half-pipe.
seanahan commented on the word archly
Another one of the many words I picked up while reading David Eddings. It means roguish, playfully mischievous, all with what I determine to be a slight connotation of sensuality.
July 6, 2007
100000232338334 commented on the word archly
"'Oh?' I said archly, in an attempt to lighten the mood." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris
February 5, 2011