Masterly
['mɑːstəlɪ] or ['mæstɚli]
Definition
(a.) Suitable to, or characteristic of, a master; indicating thorough knowledge or superior skill and power; showing a master's hand; as, a masterly design; a masterly performance; a masterly policy.
(a.) Imperious; domineering; arbitrary.
(adv.) With the skill of a master.
Editor: Pierre
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Skilful, clever, dexterous, expert, adroit.
Edited by Bryan
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Finished, artistic, consummate, skillful, clear, dexterous, expert
ANT:Clumsy, rude, bungling, unskilled, botchy, maladroit
Typed by Larry
Examples
- We have opened all the public-houses in the place, and left our adversary nothing but the beer-shops--masterly stroke of policy that, my dear Sir, eh? Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Shall we extract Mr. Pickwick's masterly description of that heartrending scene? Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Ability to use even in a masterly way an established technique gives no warranty of artistic work, for the latter also depends upon an animating idea. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The presentation of my own character is masterly in the extreme. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- The Philosophy of Creation has been treated in a masterly manner by the Rev. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- She often called up Thérèse in the middle of the night, and made her listen while she touched the organ in a very masterly style. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He was familiar with it, and said it was in the opinion of the whole Cabinet the most masterly thing that had appeared on the subject. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Folk would say--folk that knowed what a true stave was--'Surely, surely that's never the same man that I saw handling the clarinet so masterly by now! Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Here Raffles rose and stalked once or twice up and down the room, swinging his leg, and assuming an air of masterly meditation. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- My fingers, said Elizabeth, do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
Typed by Larry