Word.ws English Dictionary

Micawberly

Syllables: Mi·caw·ber·ly/mɪˈkɔːbəli/US/mɪˈkɔbɚli/

Micawberly adverb: in an upbeat and optimistic way, in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances.

Adverb

Micawberly (comparative more Micawberly, superlative most Micawberly)

  1. in an upbeat and optimistic way, in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances
    • […] not growing a single spiritual inch, for putting forth his powers as a man should; just amiably Micawbering along, and most Micawberly devoted to somebody he would like well enough to marry when the times comes and things "turn up;" […]1872, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Sights and Insights: Patience Strong's Story of Over the Way, volume 1, J.R. Osgood & Company, published 1876, page 151
    • The marriage of Grand Duke Alexis in his proper station in life is indefinitely postponed, and Count Shouvalod and his imperial master must wait, Micawberly, for something to turn up.1875 January 31, “Grand Duke Alexis”, in Galveston Daily News, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016, page 1, column 2 (bottom)

Forms of Micawberly

comparativemore Micawberly
superlativemost Micawberly

Origin of Micawberly

From Micawber + -ly (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, having the sense of ‘behaving like, or having a nature typical of [what is denoted by the noun]’) (see origin of name there), from the character Wilkins Micawber – noted for his naive optimism, always confident that “something will turn up” – in David Copperfield (1849–1850) by the English author Charles Dickens (1812–1870).

Questions about Micawberly

What does Micawberly mean?
Micawberly means in an upbeat and optimistic way, in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances.
What part of speech is Micawberly?
Micawberly is an adverb.
How do you pronounce Micawberly?
Micawberly is pronounced /mɪˈkɔːbəli/ (UK).

Words near Micawberly in the dictionary

  1. Micawbered
  2. Micawberesque
  3. Micawbering
  4. Micawberish
  5. Micawberism
  6. Micawberly
  7. micawbers
  8. Micciche
  9. Micciches
  10. Miccosukee
  11. Miccosukees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Micawberly (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Micawberly.wav.

Cite this entry: “Micawberly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/micawberly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.