Search the Dictionary

Gesture; bearing; deportment. [Archaic] Through his heroic grace and honorable gest. Spenser.

or beauty in form or action; elegant; easy; agreeable in appearance; as, a graceful walk, deportment, speaker, air, act, speech. High o'er the rest in arms the graceful Turnus rode. Dryden. -- Grace"ful*ly, adv. Grace"ful*ness, n.

weighty; influential; sedate; serious; - - said of character, relations, etc.; as, grave deportment, character, influence, etc. Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors. Shak. A grave and prudent law, full of moral equity. Milton.

acterized by coldness, as of manner, influence, etc.; chilling; frigid; cold. Icy was the deportment with which Philip received these demonstrations of affection. Motley.

or interest in; inattentive; careless; negligent; heedless. Carelessnesses and incurious deportments toward their children. Jer. Taylor.

Want of urbanity or courtesy; unpolished manners or deportment; inurbaneness; rudeness. Bp. Hall.

Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity. " A spirit of levity and libertinism." Atterbury. He never employed his omnipotence out of levity. Calamy.

Carriage; behavior; deportment; also, becoming behavior; well- bred carriage and address. Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices. Emerson.

practices moral duties; a person who lives in conformity with moral rules; one of correct deportment and dealings with his fellow-creatures; -- sometimes used in contradistinction to one whose life is controlled by religious motives. The love (in the moralist of virtue, but in the Christian) of God himself. Hammond.…

The manner in which a person bears himself; deportment; carriage; bearing; demeanor; hence, manner or style of living; as, a proud port. Spenser. And of his port as meek as is a maid. Chaucer. The necessities of pomp, grandeur, and a suitable port in the world. South.

To call back to rectitude from moral wandering or transgression; to draw back to correct deportment or course of life; to reform. It is the intention of Providence, in all the various expressions of his goodness, to reclaim mankind. Rogers.

Rest of mind; tranquillity; freedom from uneasiness; also, a composed manner or deportment.

Marked or characterized by respect; as, respectful deportment. With humble joi and with respectful fear. Prior. -- Re*spect"ful*ly, adv. -- Re*spect"ful*ness, n.

erable. A reverend sire among them came. Milton. They must give good example and reverend deportment in the face of their children. Jer. Taylor.

Reserved; distant in deportment. Shak. She may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee. Hawthorne.

d by a candidate for a diploma or degree. I told them of the grave, becoming, and sublime deportment they should assume upon this mystical occasion, and read them two homilies and a thesis of my own composing, to prepare them. Goldsmith.

Not easy in manner; constrained; stiff; awkward; not graceful; as, an uneasy deportment.

a wise scheme or plan; wise conduct or management; a wise determination. "Eminent in wise deport." Milton. To make it wise, to make it a matter of deliberation. [Obs.] " We thought it was not worth to make it wise." Chaucer. -- Wise in years, old enough to be wise; wise from age and experience; hence, aged; old. [Obs.…