Barberly

adj, adv

adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling or characteristic of a barber. rare

    "Beneath her sweater one might have caught glimpses of a black-and- white dress, in alternate, barberly stripes which commanded the eye."

Adverb
  1. 1
    In the manner of a barber. rare

    "If sheepe or thy lamb, fall a wrigling with taile, / go by & by searche it, whiles help may preuaile. / That barberlye handled, I dare thee assure: / cast dust in his arse, thou hast finisht thy cure."

Example

More examples

"Beneath her sweater one might have caught glimpses of a black-and- white dress, in alternate, barberly stripes which commanded the eye."

Etymology

From barber + -ly.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.