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GENTILITY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression
Synonyms:
breeding; genteelness; gentility
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("gentility" is a kind of...):
elegance (a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste)
Derivation:
gentle (belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy)
Context examples:
I didn't think Miss Creakle equal to little Em'ly in point of beauty, and I didn't love her (I didn't dare); but I thought her a young lady of extraordinary attractions, and in point of gentility not to be surpassed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mr. Weston was a native of Highbury, and born of a respectable family, which for the last two or three generations had been rising into gentility and property.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I washed my hands and face, to do the greater honour to his gentility, and we walked to our house, as I suppose I must now call it, together; Mr. Micawber impressing the name of streets, and the shapes of corner houses upon me, as we went along, that I might find my way back, easily, in the morning.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was just what it ought to be, and it looked what it was—and Emma felt an increasing respect for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and understanding.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
An indescribable character of faded gentility that attached to the house I sought, and made it unlike all the other houses in the street—though they were all built on one monotonous pattern, and looked like the early copies of a blundering boy who was learning to make houses, and had not yet got out of his cramped brick-and-mortar pothooks—reminded me still more of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
