Word.ws English Dictionary

foxly

foxly adjective: sly like a fox; foxlike.

Adjective

foxly (comparative more foxly, superlative most foxly)

  1. (archaic) Sly like a fox; foxlike.
    • His foxly object was attained. The attention of the hunters was diverted.1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix
    • But the children of this world have worldly policy, foxly craft, lionlike cruelty, power to do hurt more than either aspis or basiliscus, engendering and doing all things fraudulently, […]1968, Hugh Latimer, Allan Griffith Chester, Selected Sermons of Hugh Latimer

Forms of foxly

comparativemore foxly
superlativemost foxly

Origin of foxly

From Middle English *foxlich (compare Middle English foxliche (adverb)), equivalent to fox + -ly.

Questions about foxly

What does foxly mean?
Foxly means sly like a fox; foxlike.
What part of speech is foxly?
Foxly is an adjective.

Words near foxly in the dictionary

  1. Foxley
  2. foxlike
  3. foxling
  4. foxlings
  5. Foxlove
  6. foxly
  7. foxnut
  8. foxnuts
  9. FOXP2
  10. foxproof
  11. foxproofed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foxly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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