Word.ws English Dictionary

shepherdly

shepherdly adjective: resembling or characteristic of a shepherd; pastoral; rustic.

Adjective

shepherdly (comparative more shepherdly, superlative most shepherdly)

  1. Resembling or characteristic of a shepherd; pastoral; rustic.
    • And with a shepherdly reward wytsaue ye hym to fauour.1559, Thomas Phayer, Newe Boke De Presidentes
  2. Taking care of a group or flock, as a shepherd does.
    • A Sunday school teacher, for example, may and should exercise shepherdly concern for members of his or her class.1998, Robert L. Thomas, Understanding spiritual gifts, page 196

Synonyms of shepherdly

Antonyms

Forms of shepherdly

comparativemore shepherdly
superlativemost shepherdly

Origin of shepherdly

From shepherd + -ly.

Questions about shepherdly

What does shepherdly mean?
Shepherdly means resembling or characteristic of a shepherd; pastoral; rustic.
What part of speech is shepherdly?
Shepherdly is an adjective.

Words near shepherdly in the dictionary

  1. shepherdless pie
  2. shepherdlessness
  3. shepherdlike
  4. shepherdling
  5. shepherdlings
  6. shepherdly
  7. shepherds
  8. Shepherds Flat
  9. shepherds pie
  10. shepherds' pipes
  11. shepherdship

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shepherdly (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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