genteeladj.n.adv.
/dʒɛnˈtiːl/, U.S. /dʒɛnˈtil/ A. adj.† 2. Of a person or family: belonging to or included among the gentry; of high social position. Also: designating the social rank of such a person. Cf. gentle adj. 1. Obsolete (archaic in later use).† 6.
1. Suitable for, associated with, or characteristic of people of high social position, or (in later use) of a superior social class, esp. the middle class, as contrasted with the lower classes.In the 19th cent. chiefly ironic. Now often in playful or humorous use, with allusion to old-fashioned ideas of respectability and decorum.
a. Of a place, a house, clothing, or other items.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [adjective] > smart
gallantc1420
galliard1513
fine1526
trickly1580
pink1598
genteel1601
sparkful1605
sparkish1657
jaunty1662
spankinga1666
shanty1685
trig1725
smartish1738
distinguished1748
nobby1788
dashing1801
vaudy1805
swell1810
distingué1813
dashy1822
nutty1823
chic1832
slicked1836
flash1838
rakish1840
spiffy1853
smart1860
sassy1861
classy1870
spiffing1872
toffish1873
tony1877
swish1879
hep1899
toffy1901
hip1904
toppy1905
in1906
floozy1911
swank1913
jazz1917
ritzy1919
smooth1920
snappy1925
snazzy1931
groovy1937
what ho1937
gussy1940
criss1954
high camp1954
sprauncy1957
James Bondish1966
James Bond1967
schmick1972
designer1978
atas1993
as fine as fivepence-
1601 B. Jonson Fountaine of Selfe-love i. iv. sig. C3 Amor. Your Rose too do's most grace-fully in troath. Asot. Tis the most gentile and receiu'd Weare now Sir. View more context for this quotation
1678 A. Wood Life & Times (1892) II. 425 (note) A tall man..gentile clothes, and rings and pendants in his eares.
1787 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen 15 And observe a single flapped saddle is the genteelest.
1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate II. iii. 53 He was possessed of a genteel villa and ornamental garden.
1919 Rock Island (Illinois) Argus 13 May 14/3 The models we have selected..reflect the highest ideas in genteel apparel and cannot fail to please the most particular dresser.
2002 P. Long Guide to Rural Wales vi. 199 Many of the once fishing villages have now become genteel resorts.
b. Of a custom, attitude, way of behaving, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > gentry > [adjective] > natural or appropriate to
liberalc1390
gentlemanly1462
genteel1602
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge iv. i. sig. Gv A spitting Critick, whose mouth Voids nothing but gentile and vnuulgar Rheume of censure.
1766 C. Anstey New Bath Guide xiii. iv. 93 I the Muffins preferr'd To all the genteel Conversation I heard.
1801 M. Edgeworth Good French Governess in Moral Tales V. 128 She considered her mother as an inferiour personage, destitute of genteel accomplishments.
1982 R. Hamilton in Everyday Matters 113 We drink real coffee and eat cake in genteel fashion.
2001 New Republic 21 May 40/2 Her interest in cultural matters is restricted to a sort of genteel, middlebrow reverence.
c. Of education, employment, etc.
ΚΠ
1635 F. Quarles Emblemes ii. ii. 70 Wee make Art servill, and the Trade gentile [rhymes with guile].
1688 S. Penton Guardian's Instr. 36 Civil Law, was then proposed as a genteel sort of study.
1788 V. Knox Winter Evenings II. vi. xi. 284 You went..to provide a genteel maintenance for our four little ones.
1804 W. Tennant Indian Recreat. (ed. 2) I. 318 A genteel business, such as jewellery, mercery, or perfumery.
1914 Manch. Courier 28 Apr. The eight-hour day..would be one great means of bringing the mill work more up to the standard of so-called genteel occupations.
2006 D. G. Schwartz Roll Bones viii. 161 Wellborn men with the benefit of a genteel education.
d. Of food, or a meal or other occasion.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > qualities of food > [adjective] > rich or luxurious
rich1340
lecherous1474
gaudy1540
voluptuous1544
high1616
genteel1660
decadent1967
1660 R. Allestree Gentlemans Calling 85 Nature affords not Meat delicate enough for their palats, it must be adulterated with the costly mixtures of Art, before it can become Gentile nourishment.
1788 V. Knox Winter Evenings III. viii. xi. 171 The entertainment was sumptuous and genteel.
1828 M. B. Smith What is Gentility? vi. 52 The important day at length arrived!—The cook received orders to get a great dinner ready—a raal genteel dinner.
1906 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Indian Territory) 16 July 5/2 Iced sherbet and peach, delicious nectar of midsummer-tide, genteel dish of the queen of the orchard.
1995 C. Brissenden Portrait Vancouver (2008) 52/2 A Parks Board fish and chips stand feeds the hungry masses, and there are plenty of nearby restaurants and cafés for more genteel fare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > gentry > [adjective]
gentle?c1225
gentc1300
gentlemanlya1450
gentlemanlike1565
genteel1628
genty1660
gentee1664
gentlemany1728
niblike1834
nibsome1839
upstairs1942
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > gentry > [adjective] > belonging to gentry
genteel1628
gentilitial1798
country1827
gentish1994
1628 W. Prynne Vnlouelinesse of Louelockes 1 Vngodly Fashions..Transforme our Light and Giddie Females of the Superior and Gentile ranke.
1642 T. Fuller Holy State ii. xviii. 116 Nor is a capacity to be gentile denyed to our Yeoman.
1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 308 All the Knights are of noble or gentile extraction.
1770 J. Andrews Acct. Char. & Manners French I. vii. 84 A Lady's Toilet here is, in Truth, the Shrine at which all Men of genteel Rank offer up their daily Services.
1885 J. Gillow Literary & Biogr. Hist. Eng. Catholics II. 226 Faunt, Lawrence Arthur..of an ancient and genteel family.
3. Resembling a gentleman or lady in appearance; well-dressed. Now somewhat rare. N.E.D. (1898) describes this use as ‘Now vulgar, except in depreciatory sense.’In quot. 2003 in a work of historical fiction.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beauty > pleasing appearance > [adjective] > having appearance of good breeding
gentrice1568
genteel1629
gentee1664
lady-looking1843
1629 Leather 13 Some Citizens (out of a scorne not to be Gentile) goe euerie day Booted.
1696 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) IV. 125 A genteel person was seized at the exchequer picking a man's pocket.
1773 O. Goldsmith She stoops to Conquer ii. 42 Did not I work that waistcoat to make you genteel?
1836 J. B. Buckstone Agnes de Vere i. i. 11 Before you had me, you were a thin, slovenly-fellow, with no more notion of looking genteel, than a cow has of wearing silk stockings.
2003 S. Barron Jane & Ghosts Netley (2004) 42 A young man so extraordinarily handsome, and genteel in his looks, that I all but gasped aloud to see him emerge from such a conveyance.
4.
a. Having the manners or lifestyle associated with people of high social position, or (in later use) of a superior social class, esp. the middle class, as contrasted with the lower classes. Later often: exhibiting exaggerated or affected refinement or respectability. Formerly also: †polished, well bred (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > affected behaviour or affectation > [adjective] > affecting refinement
young-ladyfied1616
genteel1631
genteea1680
fal-lal1747
shabby-genteel1754
fine-ladylike1755
fine-ladyish1777
ladyish1830
silver-fork1831
haw-haw1841
lardy-dardy1861
la-di-dac1883
refained1925
1631 W. Watts tr. St. Augustine Confessions iii. i. 100 But thus filthy and dishonest as I was, with a superlative kind of vanity I took a pride to passe for a spruce and a gentile companion.
1712 E. Budgell Spectator No. 404. ¶3 Valerio had an universal Character, was genteel, had Learning.
1776 Mrs. Harris in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870) I. 342 The Duchess of Manchester says he [sc. Tessier] is not a person fit to be admitted into genteel society.
1816 J. Austen Emma II. vii. 118 They were of low origin, in trade, and only moderately genteel . View more context for this quotation
1833 L. Ritchie Wanderings by Loire iii. 63 A man..might be rich without being genteel, and poor without being vulgar.
1933 ‘L. G. Gibbon’ Cloud Howe ii. 61 in Scots Quair (1995) ‘Where's the slop basin, mother?’ he asked, to show his quean he was real genteel. But his mother was wearied with him and his airs.
2009 Observer 13 Dec. 29/2 In recent history, it is the golf links that remain the playground of genteel white manfolk.
b. Designating a state of impoverishment in which a person attempts to maintain social standing or the appearance of respectability. Also (and in earliest use): designating a class of people formerly of high social position who have fallen into poverty. Cf. shabby-genteel adj.
ΚΠ
1765 Observ. Number & Misery of Poor 16 Is not the casting the genteel Poor thus upon their country for a maintenance, mutato nomine, analogous to the vulgar Poor being cast upon a parish?
1860 Once a Week 21 Jan. 82/1 She will secure all the material comforts and many of the luxuries of life—an improvement certainly on genteel destitution.
1869 Poor Law Mag. Nov. 38 The genteel poor were persons who had known ‘better days’, whom misfortune had overtaken.
1910 Dubbo (New S. Wales) Dispatch 14 Dec. Pinching and poverty have been lost upon her... All our Notting Hill experience of genteel penury has taught her nothing.
2019 Guardian (Nexis) 7 Dec. (Books section) I Capture the Castle..centres on the Mortmain sisters and their desire for love while living in genteel poverty in a crumbling 1930s castle.
5. Of an action, a person's behaviour or disposition, etc.: courteous, polite; obliging. Now somewhat rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > good behaviour > courtesy > [adjective] > of conduct
gentlec1325
genteel1656
1656 B. Harris tr. J. N. de Parival Hist. Iron Age i. ii. x. 53 French..They are of so gentile an humour, that they make themselves admired by strangers.
1702 W. J. tr. C. de Bruyn Voy. Levant vi. 18 The Merchant gave him as genteel a Denial as he could.
1773 S. Johnson in J. Boswell Life Johnson (1831) III. 105 The hospitable and genteel manner in which you were pleased to treat me.
1889 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrong Box (1923) xiv. 158 We sit here to consider probabilities; and with your genteel permission, I eliminate Her Majesty and Uncle Tim on the threshold.
1968 C. Cooper Thunder & Lightning Man iv. 65 The National Trust, in their genteel fashion, are beginning to twist my arm. The property must be made to pay its way.
2012 Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario) (Nexis) 15 Aug. b1 No more genteel requests to kindly consider a slower pace of three roundabouts to start, followed by a pause to reflect on their safety or effectiveness...The time for pleasantries is past.
a. Of a gift, a reward, etc.: handsome; lavish; generous. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > giving > liberal giving > [adjective] > liberally given
unspareda1400
bounteous1542
unpinched1583
genteela1665
generous1706
a1665 K. Digby Jrnl. Voy. to Mediterranean (1868) 34 The captaine and marchant..sent me a gentile present.
1774 O. Goldsmith Grecian Hist. II. iii. 130 Philip..settled a very genteel stipend upon him [sc. Aristotle].
1790 R. Beatson Naval & Mil. Mem. I. 152 Giving..a genteel reward to the sailors for their bravery.
b. Of a person: generous with money; munificent. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > giving > liberal giving > [adjective]
custyeOE
room-handeda1200
largea1225
free?c1225
plenteousc1350
bounteousc1374
liberalc1384
free-hearteda1398
ungnedea1400
royalc1405
opena1425
plentifula1475
profuse?a1475
ungrighta1475
lavishc1475
almifluent1477
prodigous1477
frank1484
bountiful1508
largifluent?a1525
munificent1565
magnificent1577
largeous1583
munifical1583
magnifical1586
free-handed1592
frolic1593
open-handed1593
magnific?1594
prodigal1595
goodwillya1598
communicativea1602
real1602
prodig1605
unniggard1605
generous1615
open-hearteda1617
large-handeda1628
unniggardly1628
fluent1633
profusive1638
numerous1655
largifical1656
insordid1660
unsparing1667
dispensive1677
expensive1678
wasteful1701
flush1703
unboundeda1704
genteel1741
munific1745
magnifique1751
ungrudginga1774
unstinting1845
brickish1860
flaithulach1876
princely1889
outgiving1896
sharing1922
two-handed1929
1741 S. Richardson Pamela III. xxxii. 270 Proposes that Mr. Williams's present Living be supply'd by a Curate; to whom, no doubt, Mr. Williams will be very genteel.
7. † a. Of an abstract or immaterial thing: refined; sophisticated; elegantly tasteful. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > [adjective]
polisheda1382
dainteousc1386
polite?a1500
delicatea1533
courtly1535
civil1551
court-like1552
well-refined1575
nice1588
perpolite1592
politic1596
soft1599
terse1628
refine1646
refined1650
elegant1652
genteel1678
chastea1797
spirituala1806
aesthetic1844
nicey1859
raffiné1865
nuttish1869
too-tooa1884
sophisticated1895
lavender1928
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iii. 136 That other Corporeal Theism, seems to be of the two, rather more Generous and Gentile, which supposes the whole World to be one Animal, and God to be a certain..Etherial, but Intellectual Matter.
1692 tr. C. de Saint-Évremond Misc. Ess. 193 Happy then is that Fancy, Noble, and Genteel, which makes it self accepted by our greatest Enemies.
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. iii. i. 142 The natural and simple Manner which conceals and covers Art, is the most truly artful, and of the genteelest, truest and best study'd Taste.
1728 T. Sheridan tr. Persius Satyrs (1739) v. 67 You are well skilled in shaming People out of their Vices, by your genteel Manner of Raillery.
b. Elegant or graceful in shape or appearance. Now archaic and rare.In the 19th cent. humorous or ironic.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > elegance > [adjective]
featousc1400
elegantc1475
neat1546
genteel1688
iligant1819
elegantish1830
concinnous1831
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 349/2 In this square is the Figure of the genteel Punch.
1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres 283 The genteel manner by which the Steps were disposed.
1762 D. Hume Hist. Eng. to Henry VII II. 320 His countenance beautiful; his limbs genteel and slender.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xxi. 308 The third is a taller, genteeler, later-flowering plant.
a1818 M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. India Proprietor (1834) 157 A young girl, who exactly answered George Colman's description of Yarico, ‘quite brown, but extremely genteel, like a Wedgewood teapot’.
1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. xi. 161 A little walnut bark has made my yellow skin a genteel brown.
1969 P. O'Brian Master & Commander (1970) vii. 219 The captain has an uncommon genteel figgar.
B. n.
1.
a. In plural. Genteel people; gentlemen or gentlewomen. Cf. gentle n. 1.Now often in playful or humorous use.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > gentry > [noun] > gentlefolk
gentlesc1405
gentlefolka1556
genteels1652
gentle-people1755
carriage company1812
carriage1819
gentilities1833
1652 Pill to purge Melancholy To Rdr. sig. A2 Genteels, to you I do present this Book, whose mature judgments will upon it look With an impartiall Eye.
1719 in T. D'Urfey Wit & Mirth V. 349 Ye lofties, Genteels, who above us all sit.
1892 Athenæum 21 May 660/3 He [sc. Henry Manning] was known for some years as the ‘Apostle of the Genteels’, so little had he then developed his all-absorbing interest in the masses.
1989 New Scientist 24 June 73/3 The present generation of gullible genteels, from San Francisco to Berlin, and beyond.
2010 National Post (Canada) (National ed.) (Nexis) 5 May (Arts & Leisure section) 3 A coterie of celebrities, genteels, occasional throne-less royals [etc.].
b. With the and plural agreement. Genteel people collectively.
ΚΠ
1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 361 How is it possible for People grossly ignorant of Decorum, to please the Genteel and Well-bred?
1864 J. H. Friswell Gentle Life 6 The genteel know only the genteel.
1917 ‘O. Douglas’ Setons xi. 172 Always our accent grates on the ears of the genteel.
2016 J. R. LeHuray Virginians will dance or Die! iii. 83 Inebriated celebrants..began to dance, throwing propriety to the wind in ways the genteel could not do at their formal, sophisticated balls.
2. With the. That which is genteel; genteel things or qualities.
ΚΠ
1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World xiii. 392 His behaviour had something of the genteel in it.
1888 R. L. Stevenson Some Gentlemen in Fiction in Scribner's Mag. June 766 Mr. Adams, delightful as he is, has no pretension ‘to the genteel’.
1978 Sewanee Rev. 86 293 This stanza is pungent and its elegance goes beyond the genteel.
2013 L. Sjoberg Gendering Global Conflict iii. 90 Some states see their masculinity as affirmed..in chivalry, honor, and a sense of the genteel.
C. adv.
In a manner characteristic of or traditionally associated with a person of high social position, or (in later use) of a superior social class, esp. the middle class, as contrasted with the lower classes. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1736 Lett. from Moor at London xiv. 177 The inns here are very commodious; the inhabitants dress genteel, and in general delight much in visits to one another.
1848 Holden's Dollar Mag. Oct. 638/1 John Cantwell, shopman at a grocer's, 35 years of age,..light, rather slight person; dresses genteel.
1990 Independent 19 Mar. 14/7 At grammar school, resisting pressures to make him speak genteel, he acquired what he once derisorily described to me as a Mid-Atlantic accent.
Compounds
C1. Forming adjectives with the sense ‘that has (a) genteel —’, by combining with a noun + -ed, as in genteel-looked, genteel-shaped, etc. Also with present participles, forming adjectives in which genteel expresses the complement of the underlying verb, as in genteel-looking, genteel-sounding, etc.
ΚΠ
1696 D. Manley Lett. iv. 34 The Gentile look'd Lady had much to do to be persuaded.
1740 S. Richardson Pamela II. 361 Miss Goodwin..is..the genteelest shap'd Child.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xii. xiv. 305 A genteel looking Man, but upon a very shabby Horse, rode up to Jones. View more context for this quotation
1826 M. R. Mitford Our Village II. 14 The..farm-house has become a very genteel-looking residence.
1906 Chicago Med. Recorder Aug. 454 The desire to formulate an immediate diagnosis, one that carries less of a stigma, one with a more genteel sounding name, and one that will appease the patient.
2006 Victorian Periodicals Rev. 39 313 The way a middle-class magazine like the genteel-seeming Cornhill represents and embodies the Victorians' complicated and shifting relationship to time and modernity.
C2.
genteel comedy n. Theatre a genre of comedy popular esp. in the 18th cent., based on manners, morals, sentiment, etc., rather than on physical humour or slapstick; a particular work in this genre; cf. low comedy n. 1.
ΚΠ
1717 C. Bullock Per-juror 25 Spoil. Well, what are you for, Tragedy or Comedy? Clerk. O! Genteel Comedy! a soft Lover! or a Hero now! such as Alexander, Oroonoko, or Hannibal!
1811 Mod. Brit. Drama III. p. vi The Way to Keep Him, and the Suspicious Husband, are likewise genteel comedies; toward which species of composition the taste of the times, about the middle of the eighteenth century, seemed decidedly to incline.
2007 L. Trahair Comedy of Philos. 133 Genteel comedy is like Romantic comedy in contemporary cinema. It grew up alongside the extreme slapstick of the Sennett and Hal Roach studios.
Derivatives
genˈteel-like adv. and adj. (a) adv. in a genteel manner (rare); (b) adj. characteristic of or resembling that of a genteel person.
ΚΠ
1635 H. Goodcole Heavens Speedie Hue & Cry (new ed.) sig. Cv If they be Cheaters, looke if they bee not Gentile-like cloathed.
1765 S. Foote Commissary ii. 29 I accost him, in a courteous, genteel-like manner.
1949 F. van W. Mason Cutlass Empire iii. 17 Try to speak genteel-like.
2011 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 13 Aug. (Sports section) s3 As the top seeds have fallen like tenpins in a bowling alley, the lesser lights have come to the fore, sometimes with rare, hardly genteel-like emotion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.adv.1601- to come abroad
- to come across
- to come across with
- to come afoul of
- to expound concerning
- to expound of
- to express a quantity in terms of
- to express in terms of
- to express volumes
- to extend a call
- to extend an invoice
- to extent
- to extract
- to extract a quantity
- to extract forth
- to extract the michael
- to extract the michael out of
- to extract the root of a number or quantity
- to extravagate it
- to exuberate in
- to exuberate into
- to eye over
- to eye up
- to fable up
- to fabric up