Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Neat and orderly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pitiably; miserably.
  • Conforming to rule; not unruly; acting rightly; righteous.
  • Orderly; well-regulated.
  • Pitiable; miserable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Orderly; easily restrained; -- opposed to unruly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb Pitiably; miserably.
  • adjective Pitiable; miserable.
  • adjective neat and orderly

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective neat and tidy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from unruly.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rewly, reoly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ruly, rewly, rewely, reweliche, from Old English hrēowlīċ ("grievous, pitiful, sad, wretched, cruel"), equivalent to rue +‎ -ly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from unruly, or perhaps a continuation of Middle English ruly, reuli ("subject to a religious rule, regular"), equivalent to rule +‎ -ly, rule +‎ -y; or perhaps from Old French rulé, reulé, rieulé ("ruled"), past participle of rieuler ("to rule"). More at rule.

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Comments

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  • Wordnik's etymological definition states it is a back-formation of unruly. So what does ruly mean, and why is the "un" gloss presumed to have come first?

    December 9, 2010

  • Unable to face the OED's new website, I'm going to guess that a noun 'unrule' is attested first (cf. extant 'misrule').

    December 9, 2010

  • I'm going to take this opportunity to plug reesetee's Prosie "How I Met My Wife", which I dearly love.

    December 9, 2010

  • Aw, shucks. *blushing*

    OED has a new website? *trembles*

    December 9, 2010