gentility

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Related to gentility: politesse

gen·til·i·ty

(jĕn-tĭl′ĭ-tē)

1. The quality of being well-mannered; refinement.

2. The condition of being born to the gentry.

3. Persons of high social standing considered as a group.

4. An attempt to convey or maintain the appearance of refinement and elegance.

[Middle English gentilete, nobility of birth, from Old French, from Latin gentīlitās, from gentīlis, of the same clan; see gentle.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

gentility

(dʒɛnˈtɪlɪtɪ)

n, pl -ties

1. respectability and polite good breeding

2. affected politeness

3. noble birth or ancestry

4. people of noble birth

[C14: from Old French gentilite, from Latin gentīlitās relationship of those belonging to the same tribe or family; see gens]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gen•til•i•ty

(dʒɛnˈtɪl ɪ ti)

n.

1. good breeding or refinement.

2. affected or pretentious politeness or elegance.

3. the condition or status of belonging to the gentry.

4. members of polite society collectively; the gentry.

[1300–50; Middle English < Old French < Latin]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

gentility - elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression

breeding, genteelness

elegance - a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste; "she conveys an aura of elegance and gentility"

gentility

noun refinement, culture, breeding, courtesy, elegance, formality, respectability, cultivation, rank, politeness, good manners, good family, blue blood, good breeding, high birth, courtliness, gentle birth The old woman had an air of gentility about her.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

gentility

noun

1. Well-mannered behavior toward others:

civility, courteousness, courtesy, genteelness, mannerliness, politeness, politesse.

2. People of the highest social level:

aristocracy, blue blood, crème de la crème, elite, flower, gentry, nobility, patriciate, quality, society, upper class, who's who.

Informal: upper crust.

Translations

تأنُّق شديد، دماثَه

uhlazenost

gode manerer

Vornehmtuerei

elõkelõsködés

hæverska; fínheit

gentilezza raffinatezza

manieringumas

manierīgums

kibarlıkzerafet

假斯文文雅有教养

gentility

[dʒenˈtɪlɪtɪ] N [of person, family] → refinamiento m, elegancia f; [of place] → elegancia f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

gentility

[dʒɛnˈtɪlɪti] n → distinction f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

gentility

n → Vornehmheit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

gentility

[dʒɛnˈtɪlɪtɪ] n (see adj) → affettazione f, distinzione f

gentility

(dʒənˈtiləti) noun

good manners, often to too great an extent. She was laughed at for her gentility.

References in classic literature ?

His being a clergyman would be only for gentility's sake, and I think there is nothing more contemptible than such imbecile gentility.

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A sort of shivering gentility had kept her aloof from the rest of her fellow-workers, but it took more than a shivering gentility to stave off Polly.

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Hitherto, the life-blood has been gradually chilling in your veins as you sat aloof, within your circle of gentility, while the rest of the world was fighting out its battle with one kind of necessity or another.

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Her brother and sister were aware of it, and attained a sort of station by making a peg of it on which to air the miserably ragged old fiction of the family gentility. Her sister asserted the family gentility by flouting the poor swain as he loitered about the prison for glimpses of his dear.

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But this, to say the truth, is often too dearly purchased; and though it hath charms so inexpressible, that the French, perhaps, among other qualities, mean to express this, when they declare they know not what it is; yet its absence is well compensated by innocence; nor can good sense and a natural gentility ever stand in need of it.

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She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterised by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace which is now recognised as its indication.

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The boy, Leonard Bast, stood at the extreme verge of gentility. He was not in the abyss, but he could see it, and at times people whom he knew had dropped in, and counted no more.

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Weston was a native of Highbury, and born of a respectable family, which for the last two or three generations had been rising into gentility and property.

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I have frequently thought that I must have been intended by nature to be fond of low company, I am so little at my ease among strangers of gentility!"

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If you intend to mar my plans for your establishment in life, and the preservation of that gentility and becoming pride, which our family have so long sustained--if, in short, you are resolved to take your own course, you must take it, and my curse with it.

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Money must be so subservient to gentility as never to be worth a thought.

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"And had he married the valiant matron's daughter, as he promised?" asked Angel Clare absently, as he turned over the newspaper he was reading at the little table to which he was always banished by Mrs Crick, in her sense of his gentility.