Crossword clues for decorous
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Decorous \Dec"or*ous\ (d[e^]k"[-o]r*[u^]s or d[-e]*k[=o]"r[u^]s; 277), a. [L. dec[=o]rus, fr. decor comeliness, beauty; akin to decere. See Decent, and cf. Decorum.] Suitable to a character, or to the time, place, and occasion; marked with decorum; becoming; proper; seemly; befitting; as, a decorous speech; decorous behavior; a decorous dress for a judge.
A decorous pretext the war.
--Motley.
-- De*co"rous*ly, adv. -- De*co"rous*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1660s, from Latin decorus "becoming, seemly, fitting, proper," from decus (genitive decoris) "ornament" (see decorate). Related: Decorously; decorousness.
Wiktionary
a. mark by proper behavior. (rfex)
WordNet
adj. characterized by propriety and dignity and good taste in manners and conduct; "the tete-a-tete was decorous in the extreme" [ant: indecorous]
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, decent, seemly]
Usage examples of "decorous".
The jugglers, tumblers, and Calmucks still occupied their old place under the gallery, but their performances were of a highly decorous character.
Holy Fairs, east as well as west, have become more decorous, if not more devout.
Mrs Fusspot said that she hoped the staff would be decorous, because some of the guests are embassy wives.
Standing there in the pale sunlight, which quivered like gauze over the dark red curtains, the Duncan Phyfe dining-table, the old English silver on the sideboard, and the rarest English mezzotints on the ivory walls--standing there, against that decorous Virginian background, Curle appeared, she told herself sadly, as inspiring and almost as loud as a regimental band.
But Lilia was already calling to Miss Abbott, a tall, grave, rather nice-looking young lady who was conducting her adieus in a more decorous manner on the platform.
Dressed in a decorous suit of gray linen, Ms. Whitley nursed her bourbon and eyed Lizard with less than complete approval.
After that sermon none could delude themselves with the hope that being decorous, well-dressed worshippers at St.
He did nothing to bridge the crevasse and warm the glacier air at table when the doctor, anecdotal intentionally to draw him out, related a decorous but pungent story of one fair member of a sweet new sisterhood in agitation against the fixed establishment of our chain-mail marriage-tie.
Decorous words beseem the learned lip, But Poets have the nicer scholarship.
Its normally decorous sound had been turned up to an earpiercing clangor like that of a warship's tocsin, and that, Arrhae knew, was something H'daen would not normally tolerate.
The equally stiff and decorous Tartuffery of the old Kant as he lures us on the dialectical bypaths that lead to his "categorical imperative" - really lead astray and seduce - this spectacle makes us smile, as we are fastidious and find it quite amusing to watch closely the subtle tricks of old moralists and preachers of morals.
Compared with the outrageously garish chapeaus, the rest of the creature’s attire, not to mention the rest of the creature, seemed decorous in the extreme.
Nay again, whatever might be his eccentricities, Bartleby was an eminently decorous person.
Just then the first quiet, decorous intrusion of Spacedep aides began, the first with just a whispered message: the second and the third bringing Greene message cubes which he read before passing to Barnstable for his perusal.
I helped her into her smart suede car coat and she gave me a decorous kiss.