nymphlikeadj.adv.

1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs 68 Beholde a Uirgin crownde with Garlande he did see, Hir face, hir eyes, and habite were Nymphlike in eche degree.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) i. xiii. sig. I5 Young Philoclea appeared in her Nimphe-like apparell.

1629 F. Quarles Argalus & Parthenia i. 26 I saw..thy Nymph-like haire Loosely dissheuel'd.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 452 If chance with Nymphlike step fair Virgin pass. View more context for this quotation

1719 Free-thinker No. 94. 1 There were amongst them a great Number of Nymph-like Genies.

1791 C. Smith Celestina I. 126 Her nymph-like and graceful form.

1822 W. Irving Bracebridge Hall I. 238 Picturing..the door half open, and the nymph-like form within.

1871 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch (1872) I. xi. 166 Rosamond Vincy..had excellent taste in costume, with that nymph-like figure and pure blondness which give the largest range to choice in the flow and colour of drapery.

1886 B. Harte Snowbound 134 There was a quaint nymph-like contour to her figure.

1896 L. Morris Idylls & Lyrics 126 Asleep in nymphlike grace, Float lilies white.

1978 ELH 45 419 The Nymph knows, then, that her offspring would not even have been fully nymph-like, let alone human, had it been allowed gestational maturity.

1998 Time Out N.Y. 2 July 56/4 Bonnard continues to picture Marthe as a ripe and nymphlike 24-year-old.

1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words at Nimfarsi To spruce or Nimph-like dresse himselfe.

1871 Overland Monthly July 20/1 I watched her gliding, nymph-like, about that dreary abode.

1997 Shoot (Nexis) 6 June 32 A prancing pair of dewy models, clad nymphlike in the diaphanous shifts that are a Chloe trademark.

2002 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Nexis) 15 Feb. 10 e Visions of Winslet swimming naked and nymphlike.