shabby-genteel

[ shab-ee-jen-teel ]

adjective

1. trying to maintain dignity and self-respect despite shabbiness.

shabby-genteel

adjective

1. preserving or aspiring to the forms and manners of gentility despite appearing shabby

Other Words From

• shab·by-gen·til·i·ty [shab, -ee-jen-, til, -i-tee], noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of shabby-genteel¹

First recorded in 1745–55

Example Sentences

Tom saw a shabby-genteel sort of person, whose back was towards him, directing a letter.

From Project Gutenberg

He joined the ranks of the shabby-genteel to live somehow by bits of honest work, mixed with a great deal of dishonest work.

From Project Gutenberg

The doctor sat in a little parlour, in a shabby-genteel street of close-packed middle London.

From Project Gutenberg

For six years Amelia did live on this pittance in shabby genteel poverty with her boy and her parents in Fulham.

From Project Gutenberg

He had sat by, and let this shabby-genteel doctor, years older than the girl, walk away with her.

From Project Gutenberg