prudery
Americannoun
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excessive propriety or modesty in speech, conduct, etc.
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pruderies, prudish actions, phrases, or words.
Etymology
Origin of prudery
From the French word pruderie, dating back to 1700–10. See prude, -ery
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.
But when you strip away the social conventions from which a show’s crisis develops — prudery, repression, outerwear, what have you — you leave the action unmotivated and unmoored.
From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2023
She was dubbed by Time "the Mao Tse-tung of Women's Liberation," and rebutted by Mailer in his book "The Prisoner of Sex," in which he mocked her as "the Battling Annie of some new prudery."
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 7, 2017
This is a piece of prudery more worthy of Victorian England than Edouard Manet’s France.
From The Guardian • Jan. 18, 2016
That prudery and squeamishness lasted well into the 1940s and 1950s.
From Salon • Aug. 14, 2012
This may seem like vanity or prudery; but no matter what it appears, if it is right.
From Leonora by Edgeworth, Maria
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.
