Search the Dictionary

ropriety, or to a just standard; nnot faulty or imperfect; free from error; as, correct behavior; correct views. Always use the most correct editions. Felton.

Method of procedure; manner or way of conducting; conduct; behavior. My lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action. Shak. By perseverance in the course prescribed. Wodsworth. You hold your course without remorse. Tennyson.

well bred; polite; affable; complaisant. A patient and courteous bearing. Prescott. His behavior toward his people is grave and courteous. Fuller.

Coyness; disdainful behavior. [Obs.] Chaucer. In one's danger, in one's power; liable to a penalty to be inflicted by him. [Obs.] This sense is retained in the proverb, "Out of debt out of danger." Those rich man in whose debt and danger they be not. Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To do danger, to cause danger. [Obs.] Sh…

The quality or state of being decent, suitable, or becoming, in words or behavior; propriety of form in social intercourse, in actions, or in discourse; proper formality; becoming ceremony; seemliness; hence, freedom from obscenity or indecorum; modesty. Observances of time, place, and of decency in general. Burke. Imm…

Suitable in words, behavior, dress, or ceremony; becoming; fit; decorous; proper; seemly; as, decent conduct; decent language. Shak. Before his decent steps. Milton.

rked with decorum; becoming; proper; seemly; befitting; as, a decorous speech; decorous behavior; a decorous dress for a judge. A decorous pretext the war. Motley. -- De*co"rous*ly, adv. -- De*co"rous*ness, n.

Propriety of manner or conduct; grace arising from suitableness of speech and behavior to one's own character, or to the place and occasion; decency of conduct; seemliness; that which is seemly or suitable. Negligent of the duties and decorums of his station. Hallam. If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you mu…

; fastidiousness; and hence, in an exaggerated sense, effeminacy; as, great delicacy of behavior; delicacy in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action. You know your mother's delicacy in this point. Cowper.

trespass or offend; considerate; -- said of manners, conduct, or feelings; as, delicate behavior; delicate attentions; delicate thoughtfulness.

Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor. [Obs.] With grave demean and solemn vanity. West.

Behavior; deportment; carriage; bearing; mien. His demeanor was singularly pleasing. Macaulay. The men, as usual, liked her artless kindness and simple refined demeanor. Thackeray.

Behavior. [Obs.] Spenser.

Behavior; carrige; demeanor; deportment. [Obs.] "Goddesslike deport." Milton.

arrige; especially, manner of acting with respect to the courtesies and duties of life; behavior; demeanor; bearing. The gravity of his deportment carried him safe through many difficulties. Swift.

Rudeness of behavior or language; ill manners; manifestation of disrespect; incivility. Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes Error a fault, and truth discourtesy. Herbert.

To deprive of that which ennobles; to degrade. An unworthy behavior degrades and disennobles a man. Guardian.

Cast of mind; disposition; inclination; behavior; demeanor. [Obs.] He hath a person, and a smooth dispose To be suspected. Shak.

anting in respect; manifesting disesteem or lack of respect; uncivil; as, disrespectful behavior. -- Dis`re*spect"ful*ly, adv. -- Dis`re*spect"ful*ness, n.

Anything done; a deed; an action good or bad; hence, in the plural, conduct; behavior. See Do. To render an account of his doings. Barrow.