Dictionary

lordful en · ADJ

Etymology

From Middle English lordfulle, equivalent to lord + -ful.

Meanings

1. Having the manner or bearing of a lord; lordly; (by extension) authoritative; authoritarian; overbearing; bossy
   • Actually such lessons occur in service of an older hierarchical form of love whereby men are still seen as lords and masters of their households and wives and children are seen as subservient and subordinate creatures. Eliot and Joyce are obviously critical of the demeaning and damaging implications of such love and want their readers to agree with them. But Steinbeck is intrigued by the lordful view; he wants to shock his readers into accepting the supposed wisdom of the older hierarchical arrangements, and even to accept their violent implications. 1997, Mark Spilka, Eight Lessons in Love: A Domestic Violence Reader - Page 2:
   • Some wives can't breathe loudly without facing the wrath of their dictator-husband. Some husbands are too lordful over their wives and make them feel incarcerated in their marriage. 2015, Daniel G. McCrillis, Th. D., Biblical Psychology: A Biblical Hand-book to the Human Mind:
   • The only thing he ever did wrong was his goodness and his not very faithful wife; his fat and 'lordful' wife who always wore a frown whenever someone visited them. 2009, Liwhu Betiang, Beneath the rubble: fiction - Page 74:

Forms

Deriveds

lordfully