genteel

genteel

adjective

Definition of GENTEEL

1

following the established traditions of refined society and good taste <those bygone days when young women were taught how to drink tea while wearing long gloves and other genteel ways of behaving>

Synonyms befitting, correct, decent, decorous, de rigueur, genteel, nice, polite, respectable, seemly

Related Words acceptable, adequate, satisfactory, tolerable; dress, dressy, formal; dignified, elegant, gracious; priggish, prim, stiff, stuffy; apt, material, relevant; compatible, congenial, harmonious; allowed, authorized, kosher, permitted

Near Antonyms intolerable, unacceptable, unsatisfactory; casual, grungy, informal; seedy, shabby, tacky; banned, barred, disallowed; forbidden, interdicted, outlawed, prohibited, proscribed; awkward, gauche, ungraceful

Antonyms improper, inappropriate, incorrect, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, unbecoming, ungenteel, unseemly

2

having or showing a taste for the fine arts and gracious living <she grew up in genteel old Savannah>

Synonyms accomplished, civilized, couth, cultured, genteel, polished, refined

Related Words cerebral, highbrow, highbrowed, high-toned, intellectual, intellectualist, intellectualistic; bourgeois, middlebrow; educated, erudite, knowledgeable, learned, literate, scholarly, well-read; civil, courteous, mannerly, polite, well-bred; cosmopolitan, sophisticated, urbane; hypercivilized, overcivilized, oversophisticated

Near Antonyms ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, unlettered; lowbrow, unintelligent; coarse, ill-bred, ill-mannered; backwoods, provincial, rustic (also rustical); inelegant, polyester, unsophisticated; boorish, churlish, cloddish, clownish, crude, uncouth, vulgar

Antonyms barbaric, barbarous, philistine, uncivilized, uncultured, ungenteel, unpolished, unrefined

3

of high birth, rank, or station <the genteel ladies never mixed with the servants> <prohibited by reason of her genteel birth from marrying the man she loved>

Synonyms aristocratic, blue-blooded, genteel, gentle, grand, great, highborn, highbred, patrician, silk-stocking, upper-class, upper-crust, wellborn

Related Words high, lofty, superior; elevated, ennobled, exalted; gentlemanly, kingly, knightly, ladylike, lordly, princely, queenly, regal, royal; high-level, senior

Near Antonyms inferior, knavish; bastard, illegitimate; ordinary, plain; abased, degraded; junior, subordinate

Antonyms baseborn, common, humble, ignoble, low, lower-class, lowly, mean, nonaristocratic, plebeian, ungenteel

4

showing consideration, courtesy, and good manners <his genteel gesture of holding the door for the ladies>

Synonyms civil, courteous, genteel, gracious, mannerly, well-bred

Related Words attentive, careful, considerate, nice, solicitous, thoughtful; chivalrous, civilized, courtly, gallant, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, ladylike; ceremonial, ceremonious, red-carpet; couth, formal, smooth, suave, unctuous, urbane; elegant, refined; deferential, dutiful, respectful, submissive, yielding; acceptable, appropriate, becoming, befitting, comme il faut, correct, decent, decorous, fit, fitting, good, meet, proper, respectable, right, seemly, suitable; affable, cordial, friendly, genial, hospitable, pleasant, sociable; felicitous, graceful; demure, humble, meek, modest, unassertive

Near Antonyms heedless, inconsiderate, thoughtless; audacious, bold, bold-faced, brash, brassy, disrespectful, impertinent, impudent, insolent, lippy, saucy, shameless; boorish, churlish, clodhopping, clownish, loutish, uncouth, vulgar; casual, informal, unceremonious; improper, inappropriate, incorrect, indecent, indecorous, uncalled-for, unrespectable, unseemly; arrogant, conceited, presuming, presumptuous, pretentious

Antonyms discourteous, ill-bred, ill-mannered, impolite, inconsiderate, mannerless, rude, thoughtless, uncivil, ungenteel, ungracious, unmannered, unmannerly