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What is "decent"

Crossword clues for decent

decent
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
decent
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a decent meal/a square meal (also a proper meal British English) (= with enough good food to satisfy you)
▪ I hadn’t had a decent meal in days.
a decent wage (=one that is reasonable and allows you to buy what you need)
▪ Jobs in the factories used to pay a decent wage, but those jobs are gone now.
a good/decent living (=enough money)
▪ Her husband makes a good living.
a respectable/decent citizen (=good and honest)
▪ There are gangs on the streets who are terrorizing respectable citizens.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
pretty
▪ This camera is no exception and also comes with some pretty decent features.
very
▪ Evidently, there are some very decent people out there.
▪ Course, as Derek says, his mate is basically a very decent bloke.
▪ He also struck me as wholly sincere and a very decent sort.
▪ All of this was already mapped out in a very decent and proper piece of research that I had just written up.
▪ My mama took it hard, but the old man was very decent.
▪ Overall the Fuller could have been a very decent unit but the quality of finish badly lets it down.
■ NOUN
citizen
▪ Arm decent citizens so that they can shoot the killers before the killers shoot them.
education
▪ I simply believe in children getting a decent education.
▪ To see that girls get a decent education.
▪ Lifestyles remained simple but identification with the masses was impossible if kids had to get a decent education.
▪ It seems that it never occurred to Rosa Lee to see to it that her kids had a decent education.
food
▪ A whole mountain of decent clothing was needed for the poor of Whitechapel, so was some decent food.
▪ No decent food, no place to park and almost zero women.
▪ Do try and get him to eat some decent food.
home
▪ Discusses the government's ambition to ensure that the right to have a decent home should be available to everyone.
housing
▪ Campaigns to secure decent housing, health and employment brought women together to organize.
▪ In fact he is the symbol of the Mexicans'long struggle for decent housing in the world's biggest city.
▪ We can afford decent housing, education and health-care for everyone.
interval
▪ It hadn't even been a decent interval, and here it was again.
▪ We could reasonably expect a decent interval of peace in which we might think about these catastrophic events.
▪ So now Mrs Kettering could enjoy the future with her Claudio, whom she would meet again after a decent interval.
▪ After a decent interval, the three of them resumed their conversation, much to my relief.
▪ A decent interval elapsed, during which we looked at each other rather anxiously.
▪ After a decent interval the roommate should disappear on an errand or into his room for an extended period. 12.
▪ At a decent interval later, twice-divorced Whoopi, 43, would saunter out, like any other unattached lady guest.
▪ First Stevie, a boy, and after I had nursed him for a decent interval, Amy, a girl.
job
▪ I want a decent job, I want to do something useful, and something interesting.
▪ Carr and the Celtics have done a decent job the past 48 hours, maximizing the suspense surrounding their new lineup.
▪ Such trivial pursuits, he said, were never likely to end in a decent job.
▪ When is he going to get a decent job?
▪ You can't pay for childcare without having a decent job.
▪ The fans are typically male and in their twenties, many of them professionals with decent jobs.
▪ All she needed to put herself right was a decent job.
▪ Even if I had done better in law school, it would have been hard to find a decent job.
life
▪ That, I believe, is the way we all want to live - a decent life in a civilised community.
▪ Do not these people have the right to a decent life in prison, or even the right to life?
▪ Smith lamely promised that help would be given to any women wanting to lead a decent life.
▪ In terms of what it takes to lead a decent life in the United States, the truth is that they are.
▪ My sister has made for herself a decent life, and in that there is much to be admired.
▪ We do not wish to glorify people who are not leading decent lives.
man
▪ Graham Taylor is a decent man.
▪ The teacher who gives the beating may, in all other instances, seem a decent man.
▪ But then, hadn't she always known that he was a good and decent man?
▪ And that brought in Mayor Dever, a judge, and by Chicago standards, a decent man.
▪ Or was some conditioning or perversion happening to make otherwise decent men into bad people?
▪ This is no place for a decent man.
▪ Why are such decent men, of such ability and goodwill, now being overtaken by events?
▪ He was a very decent man but had not been blessed with all the faculties one would normally expect.
meal
▪ He desperately needed sleep and a decent meal.
▪ A lot of the time up there, I was starved for a decent meal.
▪ With her stomach settling and a surprisingly decent meal in her, Anne's spirits rose all the way up to okay.
▪ More and more husbands, desperate for a decent meal, are donning aprons themselves.
▪ You'd get a decent meal at least.
▪ By the looks of Carla she had not had a decent meal for weeks.
▪ And as for compassion, haven't I just provided your first decent meal of the day?
people
▪ His parents were decent people, and they taught him that right matters more than a grade.
▪ Evidently, there are some very decent people out there.
▪ I had seen otherwise perfectly decent people in Delhi abusing their servants as if they were pets.
▪ You ain't fit to live with decent people.
▪ Most of them were decent people with horrible jobs.
▪ But most contractors are decent people who like working with their hands, working for themselves.
person
▪ Every decent person I've ever met has been anti-Tory.
▪ Besides, loving children says nice things about you, too, as a caring and decent person.
▪ Peter responds that the fact that some one is a single parent doesn't mean they're not a decent person.
▪ If you go to the wrong house, it will be a year before any decent person will let you in.
place
▪ I hope not because Britain is essentially a decent place to take refuge and find acceptance.
▪ No-nonsense coach guided Eagles into playoffs without benefit of a quarterback and a decent place to play.
▪ You would think that with all the money I make, I could at least have a decent place to sleep.
sort
▪ Moreover, a humane, liberal, decent sort of Tory Foreign Secretary.
▪ He also struck me as wholly sincere and a very decent sort.
standard
▪ Shall receive an income that guarantees a decent standard of living. 12.
▪ We believe that retired people who have worked all their lives are entitled to a decent standard of living.
thing
▪ Gesner was the one who ought to be slapped, but he had at least done the decent thing in abandoning Suzi.
▪ I did the only decent thing I could do.
▪ Quite decent things, hopelessly botched, needing to be made clean again.
▪ He must now do the decent thing and resign.
▪ We had a date for this afternoon but when I heard about Francis it seemed the decent thing to postpone the arrangement.
▪ Thieving needs to be done outside of Deptford - somewhere there are decent things to steal.
▪ He did the decent thing, and dropped them from his speech.
▪ Wouldn't he prefer the blushing apple of his eye to do the decent thing?
wage
▪ They built alliances to win decent wages, decent working conditions.
▪ It does not necessarily follow that decent wages and working conditions with fewer hours mean a higher cost to the consumer.
▪ On this Labor Day, we must all remember that a decent wage for the working poor truly benefits everyone.&038;.
▪ He just does not want to pay his players decent wages.
▪ They never got a decent wage.
▪ Smoke-stack industry jobs that used to pay a decent wage have been wiped out.
▪ It was what happened when young people earned decent wages, and had the means to buy clothes and go to discos.
woman
▪ It's enough to kill any decent woman.
▪ He'd never shown the slightest interest in any other woman - any decent woman.
▪ He was giving palpitations to perfectly decent women, by lurking like this.
▪ You were a decent woman once, prickly with virtue.
▪ No decent woman would go wiz any of zem.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
halfway decent/normal/successful etc
▪ And you need to be halfway decent and honest and real.
▪ Discs viable, a second halfway decent act was required.
▪ Reading about that stuff, downing really halfway decent coffee.
▪ Sefelt has pulled back halfway normal, swelling up and down with big wet, rattling breaths.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Decent citizens have nothing to fear from the police.
▪ Decent members of the public will be outraged by this decision.
▪ Decent working people are frustrated at the level of crime in the cities.
▪ a decent, honest, hard-working woman
▪ Did you get decent seats for the game?
▪ Don't come in - I'm not decent!
▪ I need to get a decent night's sleep.
▪ I want to provide my boys with a decent education.
▪ It's very decent of you to be so pleased for me -- I know how much you wanted to win this competition.
▪ Perhaps Jack wanted to do something decent, for a change.
▪ The coach was a pretty decent guy.
▪ There isn't one decent restaurant around here.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And it took you all your time to get them decent again with a wet rag.
▪ Carr and the Celtics have done a decent job the past 48 hours, maximizing the suspense surrounding their new lineup.
▪ Come to think of it, he'd seemed rather a decent chap, some one it might be worth getting to know.
▪ For expatriates with offshore accounts, this represents a decent tax-free return on an investment that carries no risk to capital.
▪ He is 25-10-2 in three seasons, with what many would call decent wins, if not big ones.
▪ He was wearing a decent black cloth lounge suit, and had no intentions of changing his mode of attire.
▪ The Trojans brought the ball up but could not get off a decent shot.
▪ You would think that with all the money I make, I could at least have a decent place to sleep.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
decent

decent \de"cent\ (d[=e]"sent), a. [L. decens, decentis, p. pr. of decere to be fitting or becoming; akin to decus glory, honor, ornament, Gr. dokei^n to seem good, to seem, think; cf. Skr. d[=a][,c] to grant, to give; and perh. akin to E. attire, tire: cf. F. d['e]cent. Cf. Decorate, Decorum, Deign.]

  1. Suitable in words, behavior, dress, or ceremony; becoming; fit; decorous; proper; seemly; as, decent conduct; decent language.
    --Shak.

    Before his decent steps.
    --Milton.

  2. Free from immodesty or obscenity; modest.

  3. Comely; shapely; well-formed. [Archaic]

    A sable stole of cyprus lawn Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
    --Milton.

    By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed.
    --Pope.

  4. Moderate, but competent; sufficient; hence, respectable; fairly good; reasonably comfortable or satisfying; as, a decent fortune; a decent person.

    A decent retreat in the mutability of human affairs.
    --Burke. -- De"cent*ly, adv. -- De"cent*ness, n.

decent

clothed \clothed\ adj.

  1. wearing clothing. [Narrower terms: adorned(predicate), bedecked(predicate), decked(predicate), decked out(predicate); appareled, attired, clad, dressed, garbed, garmented, habilimented, robed; arrayed, panoplied; breeched, pantalooned, trousered; bundled-up; caparisoned; cassocked: costumed: decent] [Narrower terms: dight] [Narrower terms: dressed-up, dressed to the nines(predicate), dressed to kill(predicate), dolled up, spruced up, spiffed up] [Narrower terms: heavy-coated] [Narrower terms: overdressed] [Narrower terms: petticoated] [Narrower terms: red-coated, lobster-backed] [Narrower terms: surpliced] [Narrower terms: togged dressed esp in smart clothes)] [Narrower terms: turned out] [Narrower terms: underdressed] [Narrower terms: uniformed] [Narrower terms: vestmented] Also See: adorned, decorated. Antonym: unclothed.

  2. covered with or as if with clothes or a wrap or cloak. fog-cloaked meadows

    Syn: cloaked, draped, mantled, wrapped.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
decent

1530s, "proper to one's station or rank," also "tasteful," from Middle French décent, or directly from Latin decentem (nominative decens) "becoming, seemly, fitting, proper," present participle of decere "to be fitting or suitable," from PIE *deke-, from root *dek- "to take, accept, to receive, greet, be suitable" (cognates: Greek dokein "to appear, seem, think," dekhesthai "to accept;" Sanskrit daśasyati "shows honor, is gracious," dacati "makes offerings, bestows;" Latin docere "to teach," decus "grace, ornament"). Meaning "kind, pleasant" is from 1902. Are you decent? (1949) was originally backstage theater jargon for "are you dressed."

Wiktionary
decent

a. 1 (context obsolete English) appropriate; suitable for the circumstances. 2 (context of a person English) Having a suitable conformity to basic moral standards; showing integrity, fairness, or other characteristics associated with moral uprightness. 3 Sufficiently clothed or dressed to be seen. 4 fair; good enough; okay.

Related phrases:
WordNet
decent

  1. adj. socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous; "from a decent family"; "a nice girl" [syn: nice]

  2. according with custom or propriety; "her becoming modesty"; "comely behavior"; "it is not comme il faut for a gentleman to be constantly asking for money"; "a decent burial"; "seemly behavior" [syn: becoming, comely, comme il faut, decorous, seemly]

  3. conforming to conventions of sexual behavior; "speech in this circle, if not always decent, never became lewd"- George Santayana [ant: indecent]

  4. enough to meet a purpose; "an adequate income"; "the food was adequate"; "a decent wage"; "enough food"; "food enough" [syn: adequate, enough]

  5. decently clothed; "are you decent?"

  6. observing conventional sexual mores in speech or behavior or dress; "a modest neckline in her dress"; "though one of her shoulder straps had slipped down, she was perfectly decent by current standards"

decent

adv. in the right manner; "please do your job properly!"; "can't you carry me decent?" [syn: properly, decently, in good order, right, the right way] [ant: improperly]

Usage examples of "decent".

Mothering girls without a decent pair of jeans to their names, she could not have married the Afrikaner doctor in Brits who was in love with her, and mothered children he would take to the segregated Dutch Reformed Church every Sunday.

After all, he seemed like a decent man, perhaps in his fifties, cleanly dressed in what I regarded as the Alaskan uniform: turtleneck, heavy wool shirt, jeans, and mukluks.

As soon as he could get a decent Albanian to replace him, Nicu was going to be a graveyard boy.

As soon as I can get a decent Albanian to replace you, you are going to be a graveyard boy.

The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government.

Eoghar and ep Ardris and the rest could have joy, he thought in dark rage: they had made no decent request to go back to their kin, if that was where they were bound, and it was as likely they were deserting outright to hide in the hills.

Can it be you are not Avarians after all but creatures of the Enemy come to inhabit the bodies of decent people?

American savages, they might as well bring back some decent English sports like bearbaiting and cockfights.

But most found it to be the smell of progress, a decent, earthly aroma of beets turning themselves into gold.

Why should a decent and kindly writer like Ernest Bramah find the crushing of the proletariat a pleasant vision?

The crane was tall enough to provide them decent cover, but its bridgework was no sure protection from laser fire.

Even now the children were being shown around the Carinthian Municipal Abattoir and perhaps that would get them to give some decent performances.

His contributions to various organizations had caused an assortment of chairmen and chairladies and executive secretaries, upon news of his death, to have a deep and decent interest in the terms of his will, but except for a few modest bequests everything had gone to his widow.

And the apprentices were a decent bunch, until the comas swung in from space.

It certainly carried the kind of historic pedigree that would please a British-Canadian lord, it was widely held with no control blocks that would have demanded premium prices, and it was a well and conservatively managed enterprise, ideal for the Thomson habit of acquiring companies that turned decent profits without requiring day-to-day involvement.