SINISTERLY
Etymology
Adverb
sinisterly (comparative more sinisterly, superlative most sinisterly)
In a sinister manner.
Anagrams
• sinistrely
Source: Wiktionary
Sin"is*ter*ly, adv.
Definition: In a sinister manner. Wood.
SINISTER
Sin"is*ter, a. Etym: [Accented on the middle syllable by the older
poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.] Etym: [L. sinister: cf. F.
sinistre.]
1. On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; -- opposed
to dexter, or right. "Here on his sinister cheek." Shak.
My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister Bounds
in my father's Shak.
Note: In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the side which
would be on the left of the bearer of the shield, and opposite the
right hand of the beholder.
2. Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; -- the left
being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, sinister influences.
All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a
sinister birth. B. Jonson.
3. Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse;
dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims.
Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. Bacon.
He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior
arts. South.
He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed
particularly toward himself. Sir W. Scott.
4. Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger; as, a
sinister countenance. Bar sinister. (Her.) See under Bar, n.
– Sinister aspect (Astrol.), an appearance of two planets happening
according to the succession of the signs, as Saturn in Aries, and
Mars in the same degree of Gemini.
– Sinister base, Sinister chief. See under Escutcheon.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition