genteel

[jen-teel]

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adjective

belonging or suited to polite society.

well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.

affectedly or pretentiously polite, delicate, etc.

Nearby words

Origin of genteel

1590–1600; < French gentil; see gentle

Related forms

gen·teel·ly, adverbgen·teel·ness, nounpseu·do·gen·teel, adjectivequa·si-gen·teel, adjective

qua·si-gen·teel·ly, adverbun·gen·teel, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for genteel

These nonchalant brutalities seem at first at odds with the genteel decorum that mostly cloaks late-19th century culture.
The Magazine That Made—and Unmade—Politicians|Anthony Haden-Guest|November 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This racial balancing act makes Belle one of the most genteel yet uncomfortable depictions of racism ever to grace the screen.
Can ‘Belle’ End Hollywood’s Obsession with the White Savior?|Keli Goff|May 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The Daily Pic: Steve Mumford's genteel watercolors capture the hard truths of Gitmo.
A Guantanamo Idyll|Blake Gopnik|October 22, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Mischievous, more bite than bark in the sense that it was mordant with minimal rhetoric, Heaney was not genteel.
Robert Pinsky: The Comedy of Seamus Heaney|Robert Pinsky|October 1, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Bennett is genteel, an elite solider, someone who is as comfortable with secularism as he is with his religiosity.
Why I Like Naftali Bennett|Shaul Magid|January 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST
He contentedly takes his place in a world that does not pretend to be genteel—a laughing, working, jeering world.
The Defendant|G.K. Chesterton
The cottage at the caves is not particularly "genteel" in appearance.
The Jenolan Caves|Samuel Cook
She used to dress up like a queen, and her Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes were the genuine things and genteel all over.
Highlife in New York: a series of letters to Mr. Zephariah Slick,|Ann S. Stephens
If they were not the roses, they lived near the roses, as it were, and had a good deal of the odor of genteel life.
A History of Pendennis, Volume 1|William Makepeace Thackeray
Like a genteel apparition she stole away, leaving Ulick in a doleful mood.
Painted Veils|James Huneker

British Dictionary definitions for genteel

genteel

adjective

affectedly proper or refined; excessively polite

respectable, polite, and well-breda genteel old lady

appropriate to polite or fashionable societygenteel behaviour

Derived Formsgenteelly, adverbgenteelness, noun

Word Origin for genteel

C16: from French gentil well-born; see gentle

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for genteel

genteel

adj.

1590s, from Middle French gentil "stylish, fashionable, elegant; nice, graceful, pleasing," from Old French gentil "high-born, noble" (11c.); a reborrowing of the French word that had early come into English as gentle (q.v.), with French pronunciation and stress preserved to emphasize the distinction. Cf. also jaunty; gentile. OED 2nd ed. reports genteel "is now used, except by the ignorant, only in mockery" (a development it dates from the 1840s).