Behavior

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: be=hav=ior

CIDE DICTIONARY

Behavior, n. 

 Manner of behaving, whether good or bad; mode of conducting one's self; conduct; deportment; carriage; -- used also of inanimate objects; as, the behavior of a ship in a storm; the behavior of the magnetic needle.  [1913 Webster]
"A gentleman that is very singular in his behavior."  [1913 Webster]

To be upon one's good behavior, To be put upon one's good behavior, to be in a state of trial, in which something important depends on propriety of conduct. -- During good behavior, while (or so long as) one conducts one's self with integrity and fidelity or with propriety.

Syn. -- Bearing; demeanor; manner.

DEVIL DICTIONARY

Behavior

n. Conduct, as determined, not by principle, but by breeding. The word seems to be somewhat loosely used in Dr. Jamrach Holobom's translation of the following lines from the _Dies Irae_:

Recordare, Jesu pie,
Quod sum causa tuae viae.
Ne me perdas illa die.

Pray remember, sacred Savior,
Whose the thoughtless hand that gave your
Death-blow. Pardon such behavior.

THESAURUS

Behavior

Pavlovian conditioning, act, acting, action, actions, activism, activity, bearing, comportment, conditioned response, conditioning, conduct, demeanor, deportment, doing, employment, exercise, function, functioning, instrumental conditioning, manner, manners, mien, movements, negative reinforcement, occupation, operant conditioning, operation, operations, play, positive reinforcement, practice, praxis, psychagogy, reeducation, reflex, reinforcement, reorientation, swing, unconditioned reflex, way, work, working, workings

ROGET THESAURUS

Behavior

Conduct

N conduct, behavior, deportment, comportment, carriage, maintien, demeanor, guise, bearing, manner, observance, dealing, transaction, business, tactics, game, game plan, policy, polity, generalship, statesmanship, seamanship, strategy, strategics, plan, management, husbandry, housekeeping, housewifery, stewardship, menage, regime, economy, economics, political economy, government, execution, manipulation, treatment, campaign, career, life, course, walk, race, record, course of conduct, line of conduct, line of action, line of proceeding, role, process, ways, practice, procedure, modus operandi, MO, method of operating, method, path, conducting, strategical, businesslike, practical, executive.