auntishly
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Adverb[edit]
auntishly (comparative more auntishly, superlative most auntishly)
- In an auntish manner.
- 1802 June 26, Anne Grant, “Letter XXXIV. To Miss Dunbar, Boath.”, in Letters from the Mountains; Being the Real Correspondence of a Lady, Between the Years 1773 and 1807, 2nd edition, volume III, London: […] Luke Hansard & Sons, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, […]; J[ohn] Hatchard, […]; and Mrs. Cook, […], published 1807, page 130:
- Besides, my matronly character, years, &c. entitle me to treat you if not maternally, a little auntishly.
- [1957], Rhys Davies, chapter 5, in The Perishable Quality, Melbourne, Vic., London, Toronto, Ont.: Heinemann, page 124:
- “[…] I saw a girl buying chops in a butcher’s while I was waiting and I thought Eric ought to paint her. He’d go mad at sight of her. She had everything a painter wants.” […] “What do you mean by everything?” she auntishly asked, becoming aware of what Val had said about a girl buying chops. “Raw beauty,” he teased, “unadorned and to be adorned by the painter; myth-making face; body excavated from mythology too. […]”
- 1963, Hal Porter, The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony: An Australian Autobiography, London: Faber and Faber, […], page 32:
- Whatever Mother and Father, and Aunt Rosa Bona auntishly doting and chirruping under her platter of feathers, may believe, I have never really seen their faces.
- 1968 February 21, Christopher Isherwood, edited by Katherine Bucknell, Diaries, volumes two (1960–1969; The Sixties), London: Chatto & Windus, published 2010, →ISBN, page 497:
- It was so pleasant being bossed auntishly by Truman, told when to come and see him, when to go off by ourselves, where to eat and how we were to take whirlpool mineral baths, steam and massage at the Spa Hotel.
- 1969, Walter Harris, Clovis, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 22:
- I need that assurance, will she ruffle self’s curls and smile auntishly, or will her caress mean something?
- 1980 November 21, Emma Edmunds, “Eudora Welty: The South’s Chekhov Hones Her Craft”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume 113, number 113, Atlanta, Ga., page 14-B, column 1:
- “You’re talking to a bunch of Southern writers who really enjoyed your show this morning. It’s like sitting down in the parlor listening to my aunt tell stories,” he said. “Everyone here has been so hospitable and supportive of me,” replied Miss [Eudora] Welty, auntishly proper and polite.
- 1994, Maria von Wedemeyer, translated by John Brownjohn, edited by Ruth-Alice von Bismarck and Ulrich Kabitz, Love Letters from Cell 92: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Maria Von Wedemeyer, 1943-1945, HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 92:
- Little Gottfried is waving a building brick under my nose and saying, ‘Aunt Miesenmaus, Goffi write to Uncle Dietrich too!’ – so I keep having to break off and be auntishly unschoolmarmish. I don’t think any aunt has ever been so besotted with her nephew. I wish I could bring him to see you some time.
- 2008, Sue Moorcroft, Family Matters, Oxford: ISIS, →ISBN, page 222:
- She wanted to warn, “Don’t, Tamzin! Don’t expose your fragile heart! George is a good boy, but he . . . he’s a boy! He doesn’t think in the long-term, that you might fall to bits when it ends.” But, of course, she just smiled and patted their shoulders auntishly. And behind her back she crossed her fingers really hard.
- 2009, Ruth Thomas, “Hey Ho, Silvo”, in Super Girl, Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 197:
- Slowly, auntishly, Cathleen puts her hand out and pats Jonathan’s arm.
- 2015, Kevin Barry, Beatlebone, Doubleday, →ISBN, pages 79 (Lady Narcosis (Sweet Country Music)) and 129 (Every Day Is a Holiday at the Amethyst Hotel):
- An older lady sits and clings to him for a while, auntishly. […] He sits auntishly in the comfy damp chair.