Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or quality of being homely, in any sense of that word.
- noun Household management.
- noun Familiarity; intimacy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Domesticity; care of home.
- noun obsolete Familiarity; intimacy.
- noun Plainness; want of elegance or beauty.
- noun Coarseness; simplicity; want of refinement.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The property of being
homely . - noun The quality associated with
home ;domesticity
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun having a drab or dowdy quality; lacking stylishness or elegance
- noun an appearance that is not attractive or beautiful
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It doesn't help that her homeliness is a sharp contrast to the declaration of all the men on screen that she's some sort of immortal beauty.
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It is this simplicity and 'homeliness' of the Queen which were so often misunderstood by those who could not realize how much she was at one with her people.
Queen Victoria E. Gordon Browne
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She lays special stress upon the "homeliness" and "courtesy" of God's dealings with us, "for love maketh might and wisdom full meek to us."
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913
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I suppose United States Senators have been made out of timber a deal smaller than Mart, who was a shrewd, resourceful and shifty old boy with that rugged sort of homeliness which is a good deal better than handsome looks in catching the fancy of the plain people.
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Dybwad, being nearer to the Elizabethan time in her daily life, gives us an Elizabethan maiden with a touch of "homeliness"; but Julia Marlowe's, like Ada Rehan's "Rosalind," has something of the artificial character of Watteau.
Confessions of a Book-Lover Maurice Francis Egan 1888
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In the palace there were half a dozen officers 'quarters, and these had been apportioned to the married; consequently the palace had that air of homeliness which is supposed to be lacking in the quarters of single men.
Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories Henry Seton Merriman 1882
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Perugino was evidently a devout man; and the Virgin, therefore, revealed herself to him in loftier and sweeter faces of celestial womanhood, and yet with a kind of homeliness in their human mould, than even the genius of Raphael could imagine.
The Marble Faun - Volume 2 The Romance of Monte Beni Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
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Just because men didn't fill their diaries with their notion of "homeliness" doesn't mean they weren't interested in it, nor does it deter Vickery from trying to find out the details.
NYT > Home Page By ANDREA WULF 2009
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"homeliness," or, as we would now say, since this term has been perverted, of "hominess," the suggestion of adding to the pleasure of the household.
Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife Marion Mills Miller 1906
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In these poems will be found that love of homeliness which is characteristic of all true poets ” and orators too, in as far as they are poets.
England's Antiphon MacDonald, George, 1824-1905 1868
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