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 of genteel befitting, correct, decent, decorous, de rigueur, proper, nice, polite, respectable, seemlyWords Related to genteel acceptable, adequate, satisfactory, tolerable; dress, dressy, formal; dignified, elegant, gracious; priggish, prim, stiff, stuffy; apt, material, relevant; compatible, congenial, harmonious; allowed, authorized, kosher, permittedNear Antonyms of genteel intolerable, unacceptable, unsatisfactory; casual, grungy, informal; seedy, shabby, tacky; banned, barred, disallowed; forbidden, interdicted, outlawed, prohibited, proscribed; awkward, gauche, ungracefulAntonyms of genteel 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 of genteel accomplished, civilized, couth, cultured, cultivated, polished, refinedWords Related to genteel 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, oversophisticatedNear Antonyms of genteel 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, vulgarAntonyms of genteel 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 of genteel aristocratic, blue-blooded, noble, gentle, grand, great, highborn, highbred, patrician, silk-stocking, upper-class, upper-crust, wellbornWords Related to genteel high, lofty, superior; elevated, ennobled, exalted; gentlemanly, kingly, knightly, ladylike, lordly, princely, queenly, regal, royal; high-level, seniorNear Antonyms of genteel inferior, knavish; bastard, illegitimate; ordinary, plain; abased, degraded; junior, subordinateAntonyms of genteel 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 of genteel civil, courteous, polite, gracious, mannerly, well-bredWords Related to genteel 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, unassertiveNear Antonyms of genteel 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, pretentiousAntonyms of genteel discourteous, ill-bred, ill-mannered, impolite, inconsiderate, mannerless, rude, thoughtless, uncivil, ungenteel, ungracious, unmannered, unmannerly