genteel
Americanadjective
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belonging or suited to polite society.
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well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.
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affectedly or pretentiously polite, delicate, etc.
adjective
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affectedly proper or refined; excessively polite
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respectable, polite, and well-bred
a genteel old lady
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appropriate to polite or fashionable society
genteel behaviour
Other Word Forms
- genteelly adverb
- genteelness noun
- pseudogenteel adjective
- quasi-genteel adjective
- quasi-genteelly adverb
- ungenteel adjective
Etymology
Origin of genteel
1590–1600; < French gentil; gentle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The spat led to fears that curling was losing its once genteel image and the Canadians faced criticism in their own national media.
From Barron's
In genteel phrasing, Ancora also alludes to the fact that Paramount would itself remain woefully undersized if it doesn’t merge with Warner.
The guy with the nose ring who decides goats, chickens, pigs and other livestock belong in his grandmother’s yard in suburban Indiana, to the despair of the genteel retirees across the street.
Pilates, which combines stretching and body weight conditioning exercises, has, for some, a fusty image - a gentle and genteel workout for those of advancing years.
From BBC
Emails reveal the wealthy taking proxy measures of one another’s yachts and villas, showboating their riches in ways that make Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities” look like a genteel glimpse into society mores.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
