Definition of "womanfully" [womanfully]

• With the characteristic grace, strength, or purposefulness of a woman: "I will trample ... upon all the prickles of the impossibilities and flatten them womanfully” ( Maria Edgeworth). (adverb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She struggles manfully (or ought I not, in deference to the author's contention, to say "womanfully") against her love for Hagbart, and at last has no choice but to escape from the cruel dilemma by accepting the bishop's demand."
• "So last week I womanfully plowed through 741 pages."
• "Euston Square who has opend a correspondence with me and who most womanfully takes the part of Little Davy [2] and offers a direct application to 'The Literary Fund' on my behalf, this is not concluded on — My old friend Mr Hill of Queenhythe has written from"