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What is "polite"

Crossword clues for polite

polite
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
polite
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a polite refusal
▪ My request was met with a polite refusal.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
always
▪ Nobody took any notice, but official letters were always polite.
more
▪ Most people were polite, but we did find that older people were more polite than younger people.
▪ He became less abrasive, more polite, as he fine-tuned himself in the same way he fine-tuned the company.
so
▪ He's such a pleasant man, so polite and helpful.
▪ Always so polite with the Archbishop, a fawning, cloying, false man.
▪ Male speaker I like the countryside and people are so polite over here.
▪ Mind if 1 was so polite.
▪ How could he be so polite when he had been fired by passion only a couple of hours before?
▪ The term among Rugby Union fanatics is not so polite.
too
▪ But everyone was too polite to mention it.
▪ Pale-eyed and pink-skinned, he was always too serious, too smart, too polite, too good.
▪ Many of us are too polite to resist their pressure and we end up sacrificing our time to their sales pitch.
▪ We stood squinting into the camera, annoyed at the interruption but too polite to say so.
▪ Unfortunately he was too polite to show him his own front door after half an hour.
▪ Was Theresa ready to look? Too polite to object, Helen found herself listening.
▪ Inder Lal is far too polite to voice his disappointment.
▪ They were interested, friendly, and much too polite to laugh at behavior they almost certainly felt was peculiar.
unfailingly
▪ She was unfailingly polite and considerate.
▪ I had never realized how lovely they were, how kind, how unfailingly polite.
▪ He is unfailingly polite and tries desperately to understand other people's views.
▪ They are unfailingly polite and far from revolutionary.
▪ Quiet, contained, a trifle prissy-but unfailingly polite.
very
▪ Mr Crawley's very polite to her - you know - pretends to respect her and all that.
▪ He nodded, and was very polite and respectful, his usual attitude to his skipper.
▪ He was very polite, however.
▪ The cousins were very polite and in fact charming.
▪ He is very cold when he is angry, very polite and correct.
▪ They are remarkable young people, very polite.
▪ On the whole it is all very polite and good-humoured.
▪ You must always be very polite to the nuns.
■ NOUN
applause
▪ At the end there was polite applause from perhaps half the women.
▪ This was not a collection that sparked shouts, cheers or even an occasional burst of polite applause.
▪ I stumbled off to polite applause.
▪ He received polite applause from perhaps two in the crowd of about 40.
▪ The keynote speaker had wound up to polite applause.
▪ His strident 30-minute stump speech was interrupted only a couple of times with polite applause.
company
▪ Trevor Proby is another, of course, but his notables should not be discussed in polite company.
▪ With sad paradox, Mr Punch himself became the man in the Bateman cartoon, unwelcome in polite company.
▪ It was not the sort of thing you did in polite company.
conversation
▪ This is not the kind of guy who makes polite conversation.
▪ I wanted live action, not polite conversation and chicken cordon bleu.
▪ I decided that I had not come all this way only to indulge in polite conversation.
▪ Even so, there was not much that could be said, other than polite conversation.
▪ All she'd done was to make a bit of polite conversation!
▪ He would acknowledge the source - he was not a plagiarist - but his polite conversation was, he knew, poor.
smile
▪ The next moment she had her face under control, turning towards the door with a polite smile.
▪ Sabine pinned on a polite smile, and aimed it straight at the oncoming vehicle's windscreen.
society
▪ The picture adorned Oz's cover, and outraged polite society.
▪ It was obvious from the scenes that such behavior did not belong in polite society.
▪ Corydon is a shepherd, and Phillario is a sophisticated man accustomed to polite society.
▪ As well as dens and thieves' kitchens like the Bush and Tontine Closes, polite society had its problems also.
▪ Her passion for natural history became increasingly fashionable in polite society during the 17605.
▪ In the good old days of rampant dualism, the mind was rarely mentioned in polite society.
▪ Raymond Williams's assessment of Stephen Duck's collapse as a poet once he entered polite society has already been commented upon.
way
▪ It's the polite way of showing you the door.
▪ But such coarse mutilation would not have fitted in with the polite way in which Perrault wished to retell his story.
▪ That's a polite way of putting it, isn't it?
▪ Nevertheless, it is still possible to request co-operation and compliance with the instructions in a polite way.
▪ Show your teeth in a firm but polite way - the thing you're afraid of will then become afraid of you.
▪ This is a polite way of saying that recruitment normally causes chaos in the personnel department.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
polite society
▪ You don't talk about things like that in polite society.
▪ As well as dens and thieves' kitchens like the Bush and Tontine Closes, polite society had its problems also.
▪ Corydon is a shepherd, and Phillario is a sophisticated man accustomed to polite society.
▪ Her passion for natural history became increasingly fashionable in polite society during the 17605.
▪ In the good old days of rampant dualism, the mind was rarely mentioned in polite society.
▪ It was obvious from the scenes that such behavior did not belong in polite society.
▪ Raymond Williams's assessment of Stephen Duck's collapse as a poet once he entered polite society has already been commented upon.
▪ The picture adorned Oz's cover, and outraged polite society.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a polite smile
▪ Did you mean what you said about my dress, or were you just being polite?
▪ He seemed a very polite young man.
▪ I didn't really care what she thought about the book, but I thought it would be polite to ask her.
▪ It's not considered polite to ask someone how much they earn.
▪ She's always extremely polite to me, but I never know what she's really thinking.
▪ The clerks were very polite and helpful.
▪ The guests were all very polite about the meal, but inside Joan just wanted to cry.
▪ The last thing I felt like doing was making polite conversation with my roommate's parents.
▪ We exchanged polite goodbyes before getting on the train.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Be brisk, polite, and put the phone down.
▪ He is polite with them all.
▪ He was even polite to all his amateur partners.
▪ However, when you meet Sean Young she's disarmingly polite and looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
▪ I hope this came across in calm, polite and unthreatening language.
▪ They were interested, friendly, and much too polite to laugh at behavior they almost certainly felt was peculiar.
▪ Too polite to object, Helen found herself listening.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Polite

Polite \Po*lite"\, a. [Compar. Politer; superl. Politest.] [L. politus, p. p. of polire to polish: cf. F. poli. See Polish, v.]

  1. Smooth; polished. [Obs.]

    Rays of light falling on a polite surface.
    --Sir I. Newton.

  2. Smooth and refined in behavior or manners; well bred; courteous; complaisant; obliging; civil.

    He marries, bows at court, and grows polite.
    --Pope.

  3. Characterized by refinement, or a high degree of finish; as, polite literature.
    --Macaulay.

    Syn: Polished; refined; well bred; courteous; affable; urbane; civil; courtly; elegant; genteel.

Polite

Polite \Po*lite"\, v. t. To polish; to refine; to render polite. [Obs.]
--Ray.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
polite

late 14c., "polished, burnished" (mid-13c. as a surname), from Latin politus "refined, elegant, accomplished," literally "polished," past participle of polire "to polish, to make smooth" (see polish (v.)). Used literally at first in English; sense of "elegant, cultured" is first recorded c.1500, that of "behaving courteously" is 1748 (implied in politely). Related: Politeness.

Wiktionary
polite

  1. Well-mannered, civilized. v

  2. (context obsolete transitive English) To polish; to refine; to render polite.

Related phrases:
WordNet
polite

  1. adj. showing regard for others in manners, speech, behavior, etc. [ant: impolite]

  2. marked by refinement in taste and manners; "cultivated speech"; "cultured Bostonians"; "cultured tastes"; "a genteel old lady"; "polite society" [syn: civilized, civilised, cultivated, cultured, genteel]

  3. not rude; marked by satisfactory (or especially minimal) adherence to social usages and sufficient but not noteworthy consideration for others; "even if he didn't like them he should have been civil"- W.S. Maugham [syn: civil] [ant: uncivil]

Wikipedia
Polite

Polite may refer to:

  • Politeness
  • Polite architecture, or the polite: a form of building design which is aesthetically led and characterised by intentionally incorporated stylistic or romantic features
  • Lousaka Polite, an american football fullback who currently plays for the New England Patriots
Polite (magazine)

Polite is a semi-regular general interest and humor magazine published in the United States. Its tagline is "Generally interesting."

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "polite".

He even wrote me a very polite letter, in which he gave the name of my enemy, assuring me that he would never take any steps to compel me to pay the money.

Whether these blunders are attributable to the limited course of instruction he received at Brienne, to his hasty writing, the rapid flow of his ideas, or the little importance he attached to that indispensable condition of polite education, I know not.

They sauntered down the hillside, Titek chattering happily and Aisha indulging him with polite and informative answers, pitted by only the occasional barbless bolt of sarcasm.

She had but to return to the polite world from which the loss of her husband and her straightened circumstances had removed her, to find herself a popular woman with a host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster burned to adorn.

Carrie said automatically to be polite as they walked into the living room where Bette greeted Maddie.

The formal music for the branle and galliard, the charconne and allemande and pavane and the Spanish minuet blew pattering like tinfoil through the peach trees, suffocated by the drawling French of English thoraxes and the polite, beautiful French of the most highly cultured courtiers in the world.

His clear blue eyes ran over Brat as Bee introduced them, but his expression remained polite and inscrutable.

She watched Brek being polite in the face of their coolness and wondered how he did it.

The topmen were all extroverted Yahoos, and I had not been polite to them lately.

The confidential family servant even forgot some of her polite mannerliness in her excitement.

Reid Grammar School in the daytime, Mearl Streep had been practically drummed out of polite Iowa society.

C Sharp was speaking in polite, formal modality, using the microtone flattening of pitch reserved for the young speaking to elders.

Being polite and showing respect for the misbehaving user is a good policy - even when a horrible snert shows none of this in return.

After several minutes of giving polite attention I realized that I had opened a tap behind which stood a full ocean of information, each datum more abstruse than the last, and that Ulwy Munt was not inclined to hinder its flow.

He then called for champagne, offered it vainly to everybody, bade the company a polite farewell and went upon his way.