Adjacent Words

Genteel definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GENTEE'L, a. [L. gentilis, from gens, race, stock, family, and with the sense of noble or at least respectable birth,as we use birth and family.]
1. Polite; well bred; easy and graceful in manners or behavior; having the manners of well bred people; as genteel company; genteel guests.
2. Polite; easy and graceful; becoming well bred persons; as genteel manners or behavior; a genteel address.
3. Graceful in mein or form; elegant; as the lady has a genteel person.
4. Elegantly dressed.
5. Decorous; refined; free from any thing low or vulgar; as genteel comedy.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: marked by refinement in taste and manners; "cultivated speech"; "cultured Bostonians"; "cultured tastes"; "a genteel old lady"; "polite society" [syn: civilized, civilised, cultivated, cultured, genteel, polite]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle French gentil gentle Date: 1599 1. a. having an aristocratic quality or flavor ; stylish b. of or relating to the gentry or upper class c. elegant or graceful in manner, appearance, or shape d. free from vulgarity or rudeness ; polite 2. a. maintaining or striving to maintain the appearance of superior or middle-class social status or respectability b. (1) marked by false delicacy, prudery, or affectation (2) conventionally or insipidly pretty <timid and genteel artistic style> • genteelly adverb • genteelness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 affectedly or ostentatiously refined or stylish. 2 often iron. of or appropriate to the upper classes. Derivatives: genteelly adv. genteelness n. Etymology: earlier gentile, readoption of F gentil GENTLE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Genteel Gen*teel", a. [F. gentil noble, pretty, graceful. See Gentle.] 1. Possessing or exhibiting the qualities popularly regarded as belonging to high birth and breeding; free from vulgarity, or lowness of taste or behavior; adapted to a refined or cultivated taste; polite; well-bred; as, genteel company, manners, address. 2. Graceful in mien or form; elegant in appearance, dress, or manner; as, the lady has a genteel person. Law. 3. Suited to the position of lady or a gentleman; as, to live in a genteel allowance. Syn: Polite; well-bred; refined; polished.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. A genteel person is respectable and well-mannered, and comes or seems to come from a high social class. It was a place to which genteel families came in search of health and quiet. ...two maiden ladies with genteel manners and voices. ? common ADJ 2. A genteel place or area is quiet and traditional, but may also be old-fashioned and dull. ...the genteel towns of Winchester and Chichester. ADJ: usu ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Refined, polite, courteous, polished, civil, well-bred, gentlemanly or lady-like. 2. Fashionable, stylish, elegant (in dress, style of living, etc.).

Moby Thesaurus

Victorian, affected, appropriate, aristocratic, artificial, becoming, blue-blooded, braw, cavalier, chic, chivalrous, civil, classy, clothes-conscious, confined, cosmopolitan, county, courteous, courtly, cultivated, cultured, dapper, dashing, debonair, decent, decorous, distingue, dressed to advantage, dressed to kill, ducal, elegant, exalted, exquisite, fashionable, felicitous, fitting, formal, gentle, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, graceful, gracious, happy, high, high-class, highbred, insular, intolerant, jaunty, kinglike, kingly, knightly, la-di-da, ladylike, mannered, mannerly, meet, mincing, narrow, natty, neat, nifty, nobby, noble, of gentle blood, of rank, overdone, parochial, patrician, polished, polite, pompous, posh, pretentious, prig, priggish, princelike, princely, prissy, proper, provincial, prudish, puritanical, putting on airs, queenlike, queenly, quite the lady, recherche, refined, respectable, right, ritzy, royal, seemly, sharp, silk-stocking, sleek, smart, smug, snazzy, soigne, soignee, sophisticated, spiffy, spruce, stilted, straitlaced, stuffy, style-conscious, stylish, suave, suitable, swank, swanky, swell, thoroughbred, titled, tony, too-too, tricksy, trig, trim, uncharitable, unnatural, upper crust, urbane, well-behaved, well-bred, well-brought-up, well-dressed, well-groomed, well-mannered