Crossword clues for genteel
genteel
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Genteel \Gen*teel"\, a. [F. gentil noble, pretty, graceful. See Gentle.]
Possessing or exhibiting the qualities popularly regarded as belonging to high birth and breeding; free from vulgarity, or lowness of taste or behavior; adapted to a refined or cultivated taste; polite; well-bred; as, genteel company, manners, address.
Graceful in mien or form; elegant in appearance, dress, or manner; as, the lady has a genteel person. Law.
-
Suited to the position of lady or a gentleman; as, to live in a genteel allowance.
Syn: Polite; well-bred; refined; polished.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, from Middle French gentil "stylish, fashionable, elegant; nice, graceful, pleasing," from Old French gentil "high-born, noble" (11c.); a reborrowing of the French word that had early come into English as gentle (q.v.), with French pronunciation and stress preserved to emphasize the distinction. See also jaunty; gentile. OED 2nd ed. reports genteel "is now used, except by the ignorant, only in mockery" (a development it dates from the 1840s).
Wiktionary
a. 1 affectedly proper or refined; somewhat prudish refinement; excessively polite. 2 polite and well-mannered. 3 stylish or elegant. 4 aristocratic
WordNet
adj. marked by refinement in taste and manners; "cultivated speech"; "cultured Bostonians"; "cultured tastes"; "a genteel old lady"; "polite society" [syn: civilized, civilised, cultivated, cultured, polite]
Usage examples of "genteel".
The blankets were crawling with lice, and such evidence as there was indicated that my future bedmates were less than genteel.
Anne, who hated her step-mother and could not live at home, was fain to accompany her sister to the town where the Bluebeards have had for many years a very large, genteel, old-fashioned house.
Dialling 100, I conjured out a genteel Brummagem voice, laying it on thick.
Without our support, the genteel fiction of two Chinas is dead, and with it, Taiwan.
It was a show, Corvus knew: underneath the genteel exterior was a man with all the refinement and sensitivity of a ferret.
They called themselves that, but Homebodies and Climbers had to maintain a genteel courtesy toward the people they deported.
In their individual and aggregate air of corruption, malevolence and misanthropy, they made the other inhabitants of the Pinchgut look as genteel and demure as countinghouse clerks.
I learned to knock at doors in the Romanly approved manner, with a genteel tap of my sandaled foot instead of my knuckles.
Schrafft, who built his chain by offering lunch customers more genteel surroundings than his competitors did.
Davies said, he was the first dramatick writer who introduced genteel ladies upon the stage.
England, the genteelest in proportion to their wealth, and spoke the purest English.
She is discussed by her dear friends with all the genteelest slang in vogue, with the last new word, the last new manner, the last new drawl, and the perfection of polite indifference.
Seven rooms and a bath would be more than the largest and genteelest family would know what to do with.
The Widow Rowens, though not of the mansion house set, was among the most genteel of the two-story circle, and was in the habit of visiting some of the great people.
She felt like doing a little light vandalising, a bit of genteel telephone box smashing.