Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of a clerk.
  • adjective Archaic Scholarly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Clerk-like; scholarly.
  • Pertaining to a clerk or secretary, with especial reference to penmanship.
  • In the manner of a clerk or scholar; skilfully.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a clerk.
  • adverb obsolete In a scholarly manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of clerks; befitting a clerk.
  • adverb obsolete In a scholarly manner.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

clerk +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • It was-it was a clerkly sort of book, and sent him off into a near-doze when he tried to read it.

    Tran Siberian Michael J. Solender 2010

  • Write to him, as I cannot, that we come instantly to attend his commands, and do it clerkly.

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • He was one of Charles’s clerkly colleagues in Leadenhall Street.

    Excerpt: The Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd 2006

  • Tim Linkinwater condescended, after much entreaty and brow – beating, to accept a share in the house; but he could never be prevailed upon to suffer the publication of his name as a partner, and always persisted in the punctual and regular discharge of his clerkly duties.

    Nicholas Nickleby 2007

  • Temple, something of a clerkly monkish atmosphere, which public offices of law have not disturbed, and even legal firms have failed to scare away.

    Barnaby Rudge 2007

  • So she strove with herself, and became of better heart, and set herself strongly to the learning of the clerkly lore; she gathered her wits together, and no longer looked for every day and every hour to bring about the return of the Champions, nor blamed the day and the hour because they failed therein, and in all wise she strove to get through the day unworn by vain longing.

    The Water of the Wondrous Isles 2007

  • Cathedral towers to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass – plot — and was introduced to my new master, Doctor Strong.

    David Copperfield 2007

  • He approaches a clerkly-looking man, sitting under the corner arch, and makes his bargain.

    Pictures from Italy 2007

  • Mr Boffin having been several times in communication with this clerkly essence, both on its own ground and at the Bower, had no difficulty in identifying it when he saw it up in its dusty eyrie.

    Our Mutual Friend 2004

  • He was at this time a significant figure — tall, lean, inquisitorial, clerkly — with nice, smooth, closely-cropped side whiskers coming to almost the lower lobes of his ears.

    The Financier 2004

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