well-manneredadj.n.

c1400 (?a1387) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xi. l. 260 A mayde wel ymanered of good men [y]spronge [MS spronge].

a1500 (a1475) G. Ashby Dicta Philosophorum l. 113 in Poems (1899) 48 Wele manered people bene of goode lif.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection ii. sig. Mviii^v Whiche were in ther conuersacion ryght honeste & well manerd.

c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 98 Patroclus þe proud kyng was..Wel manert & meke.

1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas xxvii. 382 To nurse you vp in a civill & well-mannered country.

1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια xvii. 138 To see a man well mannered so commonly caluminated, disgraced, persecuted; and a man ill-mannered so usually justified, preferred, honoured.

a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. xxx. f. xii/2 He was personable and well manered hauynge great experience in hawkynge & huntynge and other properties apperteynynge to a Gentylman.

a1549 A. Borde Fyrst Bk. Introd. Knowl. (1870) iii. 132 The people of the Englyshe pale be metely wel manerd,..but naturally they be testy.

1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. 116 Haue a care to be well manered: for with good maner, more then with any other thinge we withdrawe our enemies, and do sustaine our friendes.

1682 J. Dryden Medall Epist. Whigs sig. a1 By which well-mannerd and charitable Expressions, I was certain of his Sect, before I knew his name.

1693 J. Dryden Disc. conc. Satire in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires p. xxxviii A well manner'd Court Slave.

1714 D. Manley Adventures of Rivella 38 I was too well Manner'd to take the Black, and leave none to attend your Ladyship.

1740 S. Richardson Pamela II. 227 Where's your well-manner'd Deceiver gone, Child? says she.

1846 E. Bulwer-Lytton Lucretia I. i. i. 23 The boy..was so lively, yet so well mannered.

1847 C. G. F. Gore Castles in Air I. vi. 114 Though good-looking, and even well-mannered, because courteous and unaffected, they had no pretension to be ladies.

1936 N.Y. Times 15 May 23/2 Bridget likes fine clothes and the well-mannered life of polite society.

1975 J. R. McGovern Yankee Family ix. 112 The well-mannered and sophisticated, gossipy set.., midst rooms full of family portraits and old brass and pewter.

2010 Sun (Nexis) 6 May 63 She has gone from a very calm, well-mannered child to a raucous, defiant and insulting teenager.

1757 Gentleman's Mag. Nov. 570/2 Believest thou that this Manner of treating any Gentleman, from whom thou mayest differ in Opinion,..can give thee the Esteem, the Love, or the good Will of the learned, the humane, or the well mannered?

1856 C. J. Lever Martins of Cro' Martin xxiii. 244 I have given up association with the well-bred and the well-mannered, to rub shoulders with the coarse-minded, the rough-hearted, and the vulgar.

1965 Life 12 Mar. 42/3 Aspen is very conscious of its image as a ski haven for the well-mannered and well-heeled.

2013 P. L. Hays in B. Mangum F. S. Fitzgerald in Context xx. 222 Fitzgerald could not dismiss his own desire to..blend seamlessly into the stratum of the rich, the cultured, the well-mannered.