Dictionary

employerly en · ADJ

Etymology

From employer + -ly.

Meanings

1. Characteristic of an employer.
   • He was exceedingly courteous to me in the office—quite in the employerly way. 1915, Virginia Brooks, chapter 20, in My Battles with Vice, New York: Macaulay, page 189:
   • “Okay, you can draw monsters. What about cars? Buildings?” he asked, faking an employerly monotone, trying to conceal his excitement. 2000, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, New York: Random House, Part 2, p. 70:
   • The reaction of the Faculty Salary Committee to any such argument can be imagined. For that matter, any “normal, healthy” person’s reaction can be imagined, to that employerly solicitude for “freedom” that keeps wages conveniently low. 1982, Lisa Newton, “Inducement, Due and Otherwise”, in Thomas A. Mappes, Jane S. Zembaty, editors, Biomedical Ethics, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill, published 1986, page 235:
   • 1876, J. Brunton Stephens, A Hundred Pounds, Melbourne: Samuel Mullen, Chapter 7, pp. 87-88, Sandie Scott has just brought into the ferry-house a large folding-screen pasted over with a motley collection of pictures from illustrated papers. ¶ Mary Drysdale is sitting at the open window, sewing some article […] . Mary in her innocence thinks that the screen is only one of the many kind employerly attentions to which she has now grown so accustomed […]

Forms