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, proper, nice, polite, respectable, seemlyRelated Words 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 intolerable, unacceptable, unsatisfactory; casual, grungy, informal; seedy, shabby, tacky; banned, barred, disallowed; forbidden, interdicted, outlawed, prohibited, proscribed; awkward, gauche, ungracefulAntonyms 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, cultivated, polished, refinedRelated 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, oversophisticatedNear 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, vulgarAntonyms 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, noble, gentle, grand, great, highborn, highbred, patrician, silk-stocking, upper-class, upper-crust, wellbornRelated Words high, lofty, superior; elevated, ennobled, exalted; gentlemanly, kingly, knightly, ladylike, lordly, princely, queenly, regal, royal; high-level, seniorNear Antonyms inferior, knavish; bastard, illegitimate; ordinary, plain; abased, degraded; junior, subordinateAntonyms 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, polite, gracious, mannerly, well-bredRelated 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, unassertiveNear 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, pretentiousAntonyms discourteous, ill-bred, ill-mannered, impolite, inconsiderate, mannerless, rude, thoughtless, uncivil, ungenteel, ungracious, unmannered, unmannerly