Definition of "clerkly"
clerkly
adjective
comparative clerklier, superlative clerkliest
Quotations
I have promised him that when he is released, early next year, I will find him something to do: a job in a gymnasium, if possible, where his feeling for men and physical exercise can be fulfilled, rather than baulked and denied in some clerkly work.
1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, page 255
(obsolete) Scholarly.
Quotations
Hath he not tvvit our Soueraigne Lady here / VVith ignominious vvords, though Clarkely coucht? / As if ſhe had ſuborned ſome to ſvveare / Falſe allegations, to o'rethrovv his ſtate.
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i], page 131, column 2
The words are Gratians, that Copula Sacerdotalis vel consanguincorum, The marriage or (as this Clerkly Grammarian translates it) the carnall copulation of Priests, or kinsfolkes is not forbidden by any Legall, Euangelicall, or Apostolicall authoritie, but by Ecclesiasticall Law it is forbidden.
1620, Joseph Hall, The Honor of the Married Clergie, London: H. Fetherstone, Book 1, Section 22, p. 121
[N]ow Clerks and Clerici have divers acceptations, generally all men literate vvere thus called, and becauſe Church men were moſtly of old ſuch officers, therefore all men that are Bookiſh are ſaid to be Clerkly.
1663, Edward Waterhous [i.e., Edward Waterhouse], chapter XXV, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Roycroft for Thomas Dicas […], page 340
adverb
comparative more clerkly, superlative most clerkly
(obsolete) In a scholarly manner.
Quotations
For this doo lerned persons déeme, of Ouids present woorke:That in no one of all his bookes the which he wrate, doo lurkeMo darke and secret misteries, mo counselles wyse and sage,Mo good ensamples, mo reprooues of vyce in youth and age,Mo fyne inuentions too delight, mo matters clerkly knit,No nor more straunge varietie too shew a lerned wit.
1567, Arthur Golding, “Too the Reader”, in The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into English meeter, London
Hath he not twit our sovereign lady hereWith ignominious words, though clerkly couch’d,As if she had suborned some to swearFalse allegations to o’erthrow his state?
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]