shapely
US/ˈʃeɪpli/
shapely adjective: having a pleasing shape, pleasant to look at.
Adjective
shapely (comparative shapelier or more shapely, superlative shapeliest or most shapely)
- Having a pleasing shape, pleasant to look at.
- The more solicitous of the two was Nurse Cramer, a shapely, pretty, sexless girl with a wholesome unattractive face.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171
- It used to be, whenever Frank passed a rival butcher’s window (and later the curved glass of a supermarket meat counter), he would peer in unjealously, looking for the subtleties that spoke of talent with a knife. Were their fillets shapely?2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- well set
shapely meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
shapely in Hindi
- having a pleasing shape
- सुडौल suḍaul
shapely in Urdu
- چھبیلا, سڈول
shapely in Malayalam
- സുന്ദരമായ, ആകാരവടിവുള്ള, ശുദ്ധാകാരമായ, നിയതരൂപമുള്ള
shapely in Kannada
- ಸುಂದರವಾದ, ಬೆಡಂಗ, ಬೆಡಗ, ರೂಪವಂತ, ಅಂಗ ಸೌಷ್ಠವವುಳ್ಳ, ಅಂದವಾದ ಮೈಕಟ್ಟಿನ
More languagesFewer languages
- shapely in Arabic
- حَسَن ḥasan
Synonyms of shapely
- well set
Antonyms
Forms of shapely
| comparative | shapelier |
|---|---|
| comparative | more shapely |
| superlative | shapeliest |
| superlative | most shapely |
Origin of shapely
From Middle English schaply, schappely (“well-shaped, beautiful, attractive”), perhaps from Old English *ġesċeaplīċ (“according to design, proper, fit”) (suggested by Old English ġesċeaplīċe (“properly, fitting, well”)), equivalent to shape + -ly.
Words formed from shapely
Questions about shapely
- What does shapely mean?
- Shapely means having a pleasing shape, pleasant to look at.
- What is shapely in Hindi?
- Shapely in Hindi is सुडौल (suḍaul). See Shapely meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is shapely?
- Shapely is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce shapely?
- Shapely is pronounced /ˈʃeɪpli/ (US).
Words near shapely in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shapely (page history and authors); shapely (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shapely (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shapely (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-shapely.wav.
Cite this entry: “shapely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shapely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.