| Library / English Dictionary |
PROPRIETY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Correct or appropriate behavior
Synonyms:
correctitude; properness; propriety
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("propriety" is a kind of...):
behavior; behaviour; conduct; demeanor; demeanour; deportment ((behavioral attributes) the way a person behaves toward other people)
Attribute:
proper (marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness)
improper (not suitable or right or appropriate)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "propriety"):
decorousness; decorum (propriety in manners and conduct)
appropriateness; rightness (appropriate conduct; doing the right thing)
correctness (the quality of conformity to social expectations)
good form (behavior that conforms to social conventions of the time)
priggishness; primness (exaggerated and arrogant properness)
modesty; reserve (formality and propriety of manner)
grace; seemliness (a sense of propriety and consideration for others)
decency (the quality of conforming to standards of propriety and morality)
Antonym:
impropriety (an improper demeanor)
Context examples:
I was brought up in the freer, less conventional atmosphere of South Australia, and this English life, with its proprieties and its primness, is not congenial to me.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As he called Peggotty Lass, and gave her a hearty smack on the cheek, I had no doubt, from the general propriety of her conduct, that he was her brother; and so he turned out—being presently introduced to me as Mr. Peggotty, the master of the house.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
For my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of your fellows who do what they call good.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Brooke will go to keep us boys steady, and Kate Vaughn will play propriety for the girls.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
She only wished that it were less openly shewn; and once or twice did venture to suggest the propriety of some self-command to Marianne.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy?
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
No, in her uncle's house there would have been a consideration of times and seasons, a regulation of subject, a propriety, an attention towards everybody which there was not here.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It was short, but expressed good sense, warm attachment, liberality, propriety, even delicacy of feeling.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It was very desirable that the connexion should be renewed, if it could be done, without any compromise of propriety on the side of the Elliots.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Come, Miss Morland, let us leave him to meditate over our faults in the utmost propriety of diction, while we praise Udolpho in whatever terms we like best.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
