the King's English

Cultural  

1. Correct English usage and diction; the kind of English that would be spoken at the court of the English king: “With their mixture of jargon and slang, sportscasters are constantly murdering the King's English.”

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Example Sentences

The Brontës’ novels are stuffed full of dialect, and Heathcliff hardly speaks the King’s English.

From The Guardian • Nov. 16, 2019

On the other hand, I’m not as optimistic as Paul Krugman, whom I always read because he’s the smartest leftist I’ve ever read and he uses the King’s English very well.

From Forbes • Sep. 25, 2014

And it made the cast members - with skills barely advanced beyond strutting, scrapping, carousing and mangling the King's English - into stars.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 18, 2012

At 64 and a co-owner of the King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, she has been in business for 33 years and employs 25.

From New York Times • Sep. 17, 2010

It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the double negative was declared a sin against the King’s English, on the ground that one negative canceled the other.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner