prudery
Americannoun
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excessive propriety or modesty in speech, conduct, etc.
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pruderies, prudish actions, phrases, or words.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
He was fired because of indefensible and harmful prudery.
From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2022
Poem-sequences dominate Muldoon’s storm of slaps against piety, prudery, cruelty and greed.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2021
Thanks to local prudery and Robert Moses, it was never realized.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 20, 2019
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
"What affectation of prudery is this?" he asked, roughly.
From Jessamine A Novel by Harland, Marion
The impulse at the end of that entertaining series of pruderies was simply to call the author a liar and go home in disgust�or else not to believe that it was over at all.
From Time Magazine Archive
She has stopped my mouth overlong with her pruderies and her scruples.
From The Fair Maid of Perth Or, St. Valentine's Day by Scott, Walter, Sir
Without, as I perceived, hereditary breeding, and without conventional pruderies, she had a rare purity and elevation of feeling, which exerted a manifest and constant influence, sadly needed in a soldiers' hospital.
From The Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No. V, May, 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various
Prejudices and pruderies, respect of persons, reverence of sentiments, and consideration for the corns of the dull are fatal.
From Pot-Boilers by Bell, Clive
The Bavarians have no false pruderies, no nasty little nicenesses.
From Europe After 8:15 by Benton, Thomas H.
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.
