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RESPECTABLE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Large in amount or extent or degree
Example:
a sizable fortune
Synonyms:
goodish; goodly; healthy; hefty; respectable; sizable; sizeable; tidy
Classified under:
Similar:
considerable (large or relatively large in number or amount or extent or degree)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Deserving of esteem and respect
Example:
ruined the family's good name
Synonyms:
estimable; good; honorable; respectable
Classified under:
Similar:
reputable (having a good reputation)
Derivation:
respectability (honorableness by virtue of being respectable and having a good reputation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Characterized by socially or conventionally acceptable morals
Example:
a respectable woman
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
decent; nice (socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous)
presentable (fit to be seen)
solid; upstanding (meriting respect or esteem)
Also:
good (having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified)
reputable (having a good reputation)
worthy (having worth or merit or value; being honorable or admirable)
Antonym:
unrespectable (unworthy of respect)
Derivation:
respectability (honorableness by virtue of being respectable and having a good reputation)
Context examples:
You wish to think all the world respectable, and are hurt if I speak ill of anybody.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
“No respectable house would touch them,” he whispered.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
On the third day, in short, as soon as she could be prevailed on, a physician attended her, a very respectable man, and one in whom she had always placed great confidence.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
That horrid thing has the wolves and the rats and his own kind to help him, so I suppose he isn't above trying to use a respectable lunatic.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
It was a staid, respectable magazine, and it had been published continuously since long before he was born.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The beaches of the outer cove were thundering with the surf, and even in our land-locked inner cove a respectable sea was breaking.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
And at the other side the groove continued on over the land—a well-disposed, respectable groove that supplied hotels at every stopping-place, and hotels on wheels between the stopping-places.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
While the Sambar deer weren't quite as effective seed dispersers as gibbons (21 percent), they still produced a respectable 17 percent.
(Thai Elephants Help Spread Jungle Fruit's Seeds, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)
Thus we find such modern creatures as the tapir—an animal with quite a respectable length of pedigree—the great deer, and the ant-eater in the companionship of reptilian forms of jurassic type.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes, but it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some months, and in the meantime he hoped to procure some respectable employment in a merchant’s house.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
