Definitions

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

  • adjective Quite large; considerable.
  • adjective Of pleasing appearance; comely.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a good manner; gracefully; excellently; kindly.
  • Well; properly.
  • Conveniently.
  • Good-looking; of fair proportions or fine appearance; graceful; well-favored; well formed or developed: as, a goodly person; goodly raiment.
  • Pleasant; agreeable; desirable.
  • Considerable; rather large or great: as, a goodly number.

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

  • adjective Pleasant; agreeable; desirable.
  • adjective Of pleasing appearance or character; comely; graceful
  • adjective Large; considerable; portly.
  • adverb obsolete Excellently.

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

  • adjective archaic good, pleasing in appearance
  • adjective archaic Quite large; considerable: a goodly sum.
  • adverb obsolete In a goodly way; courteously, graciously.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective large in amount or extent or degree

Etymologies

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Examples

Comments

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  • "CORIOLANUS: A goodly city is this Antium. City,

    'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir

    Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars

    Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not."

    - William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.

    August 29, 2009

  • seldom use goodly. use well.

    December 8, 2017