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DECENCY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of being polite and respectable
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("decency" is a kind of...):
reputability; respectability (honorableness by virtue of being respectable and having a good reputation)
Derivation:
decent (socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The quality of conforming to standards of propriety and morality
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("decency" is a kind of...):
correctitude; properness; propriety (correct or appropriate behavior)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "decency"):
modestness; modesty (freedom from vanity or conceit)
Antonym:
indecency (the quality of being indecent)
Derivation:
decent (conforming to conventions of sexual behavior)
decent (observing conventional sexual mores in speech or behavior or dress)
decent (socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous)
Context examples:
In the middle was a large rack, with angles answering to every partition of the manger; so that each horse and mare ate their own hay, and their own mash of oats and milk, with much decency and regularity.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I therefore told my master, that in the country whence I came, those of my kind always covered their bodies with the hairs of certain animals prepared by art, as well for decency as to avoid the inclemencies of air, both hot and cold; of which, as to my own person, I would give him immediate conviction, if he pleased to command me: only desiring his excuse, if I did not expose those parts that nature taught us to conceal.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
His majesty gave orders, upon pain of death, that every soldier in his march should observe the strictest decency with regard to my person; which however could not prevent some of the younger officers from turning up their eyes as they passed under me: and, to confess the truth, my breeches were at that time in so ill a condition, that they afforded some opportunities for laughter and admiration.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand, and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness; and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience (perhaps against the strict rules of decency) by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I wanted food.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not altogether so robust; and that some rules were given them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was enjoined them: for their maxim is, that among peoples of quality, a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I never presumed to speak, except in answer to a question; and then I did it with inward regret, because it was a loss of so much time for improving myself; but I was infinitely delighted with the station of an humble auditor in such conversations, where nothing passed but what was useful, expressed in the fewest and most significant words; where, as I have already said, the greatest decency was observed, without the least degree of ceremony; where no person spoke without being pleased himself, and pleasing his companions; where there was no interruption, tediousness, heat, or difference of sentiments.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner-time. Don't you think?
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Amid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
