Search the Dictionary

; hence, freedom from obscenity or indecorum; modesty. Observances of time, place, and of decency in general. Burke. Immodest words admit of no defense, For want of decency is want of sense. Roscommon.

The quality or state of being indecent; want of decency, modesty, or good manners; obscenity.

Indecency. [Obs.] "Decency and undecency." Jer. Taylor.

Pure in thought and act; innocent; free from lewdness and obscenity, or indecency in act or speech; modest; as, a chaste mind; chaste eyes.

edience; to correct or purify; to free from faults or excesses. The gay, social sense, by decency chastised. Thomson.

nts; vesture; -- a general term for whatever covering is worn, or is made to be worn, for decency or comfort. She . . . speaks well, and has excellent good clothes. Shak. If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. Mark. v. 28.

Decency. [Obs.] Dryden.

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 must tell him, That majesty, to keep decorum, must No…

er, or more vicious; to decline in good qualities; to deteriorate. When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety. Tillotson.

Offensive to good morals and public decency; notoriously offensive; as, a disorderly house.

That which is enormous; especially, an exceeding offense against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime; flagitious villainy; an atrocity. These clamorous enormities which are grown too big and strong for law or shame. South.

Emulation; rivalry. [Obs.] Such as cleanliness and decency Prompt to a virtuous envy. Ford.

Honor; honorableness; dignity; propriety; suitableness; decency. [Obs.] Chaucer. She derives her honesty and achieves her goodness. Shak.

Not modest; wanting in the reserve or restraint which decorum and decency require; indecent; indelicate; obscene; lewd; as, immodest persons, behavior, words, pictures, etc. Immodest deeds you hinder to be wrought, But we proscribe the least immodest thought. Dryden.

Want of modesty, delicacy, or decent reserve; indecency. "A piece of immodesty." Pope.

See Indecency. [Obs.] "An indecence of barbarity." Bp. Burnet.

Established; depending on, or characterized by, institution or order. "Institutive decency." Milton.

e proprieties of the sex; not unwomanly in act or bearing; free from undue familiarity, indecency, or lewdness; decent in speech and demeanor; -- said of a woman. Mrs. Ford, the honest woman, the modest wife. Shak. The blushing beauties of a modest maid. Dryden.

The quality or state of being nasty; extreme filthness; dirtiness; also, indecency; obscenity. The nastiness of Plautus and Aristophanes. Dryden.

desty; expressing of presenting to the mind or view something which delicacy, purity, and decency forbid to be exposed; impure; as, obscene language; obscene pictures. Words that were once chaste, by frequent use grew obscene and uncleanly. I. Watts.