stately

adj

1. Worthy of respect; dignified, regal.

   “Warwick's first glance had revealed the fact that the young woman was strikingly handsome, with a stately beauty seldom encountered.”

2. Deliberate, unhurried; dignified.

   “And much as they welcome his promise to repeal "don't ask, don't tell", they are dismayed by the stately pace and bungled tactics of his attempts to do so.”

   “At about twenty past three in the afternoon, these aircraft duly began to arrive. The cruiser Northampton was towing Hornet at a stately five knots when, out of the sky, came seven torpedo-armed aircraft. They managed to miss the barely-moving Hornet with all but one drop... but one hit was really all that it took, the location causing additional damage to the stricken carrier and demolishing most of the repairs that had been made to the earlier damage.”

   “Germany can’t afford to stick to the stately plod into decline that Merkel initiated any longer. Merz will have to act fast, and break things to pull the country out of the quagmire it finds itself in.”

3. Grand; impressive; imposing.

   “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.”

   “Their stately offices—their pleasant gardens—the magnificent cloisters constructed for their recreation, were all dilapidated and ruinous; […]”

   “Below is the deep abyss of the Lauterbrunnen valley, and at its head a stately semi-circle of mountains, with the pyramidal Lauterbrunnen Breithorn as the centre-piece.”

   “Flora is a good scout, a favourite with the jockeys on account of her stately breasts and the generous use she puts them to.”

adv

1. In a stately manner.