lady-like

lady-like (comparative more lady-like, superlative most lady-like)

1. Alternative form of ladylike.
   • 1778, Samuel Crisp, The early journals and letters of Fanny Burney‎, volume III, published 1994, page 188:

     They put me in mind of a poor Girl, a Miss Peachy (a real, & in the end, a melancholy Story)—she was a fine young Woman; but thinking herself too ruddy & blowsy, it was her Custom to bleed herself (an Art she had learn’d on purpose) 3 or 4 times against the Rugby Races in order to appear more dainty & Lady-like at the balls, &c

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XIV, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 273:

     “Having understood as much, I was rather astonished to find her so very lady-like! But she is really quite the gentlewoman.”

   • 1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter V, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 68:

     They were shewn into a back sitting-room on the ground-floor, where a certain air of elegant untidiness denoted the lady-like superiority of Mrs. Smallwood.

   • 1967, Japan Quarterly, page 76:

     Ladies in English legend have been known to turn into foxes; but do so ladily, in a properly lady-like manner.

   • 1997 spring, Sandra Perlmutter, “Message from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports”, in Linda K. Bunker, editor, Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls: Physical & Mental Health Dimensions from an Interdisciplinary Approach: Executive Summary: The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports: Report […], Washington, D.C.: President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, →OCLC, page 5:

     The images of strong, active women were inspiring, a long way from the days when females were relegated to "lady-like" sports and young girls were left on the sidelines while their brothers played.