Word.ws English Dictionary

prudely

prudely adverb: in the manner of a prude; prudishly.

Adverb

prudely (comparative more prudely, superlative most prudely)

  1. In the manner of a prude; prudishly.
    • Had late observed my silent tear,
      That I was press'd, and press'd most rudely,
      Not to behave so very prudely ;1836, Alexander John Ellis, “My Recantation”, in Verses, Cambridge: Metcalfe and Palmer, page 107
    • When you family-prayed on Sunday nights—
      The living room a crowd of things to do
      Each prudely solemn word defined your rights.1960, Thomas McAfee, “The Matriarch”, in Poems and Stories, University of Missouri Press, page 3

Forms of prudely

comparativemore prudely
superlativemost prudely

Origin of prudely

From prude + -ly.

Questions about prudely

What does prudely mean?
Prudely means in the manner of a prude; prudishly.
What part of speech is prudely?
Prudely is an adverb.

Words near prudely in the dictionary

  1. prud'-hommes
  2. prud'homme
  3. prud'hommes
  4. prude
  5. prudelike
  6. prudely
  7. Pruden
  8. prudence
  9. Prudence Island
  10. prudences
  11. prudencies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prudely (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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Cite this entry: “prudely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prudely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.