demure

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: de=mure

OXFORD DICTIONARY

demure, adj. (demurer, demurest)
1 composed, quiet, and reserved; modest.
2 affectedly shy and quiet; coy.
3 decorous (a demure high collar).

Derivative

demurely adv. demureness n.

Etymology

ME, perh. f. AF demur{eacute} f. OF demor{eacute} past part. of demorer remain, stay (as DEMUR): infl. by OF me{uuml}r f. L maturus ripe

THESAURUS

demure

Quakerish, Victorian, backward, bashful, censorious, close, confused, conscious, coy, decent, decorous, diffident, earnest, formal, frowning, grave, grim, grim-faced, grim-visaged, hidebound, inarticulate, long-faced, mid-Victorian, modest, mousy, narrow, nice, old-maidish, overmodest, priggish, prim, proper, prudish, puritanical, reserved, reticent, retiring, sanctimonious, sedate, seemly, self-conscious, serious, shamefaced, shamefast, shy, silent, skittish, smug, sober, sober-minded, sobersided, solemn, somber, staid, stammering, stiff-necked, stone-faced, straight-faced, straitlaced, stuffy, thoughtful, timid, timorous, unassertive, unassured, unsmiling, weighty

ROGET THESAURUS

demure

Inexcitability

N inexcitability, imperturbability, inirritability, even temper, tranquil mind, dispassion, tolerance, patience, coolth, passiveness, hebetude, hebetation, impassibility, stupefaction, coolness, calmness, composure, placidity, indisturbance, imperturbation, sang froid, tranquility, serenity, quiet, quietude, peace of mind, mental calmness, staidness, gravity, sobriety, Quakerism, philosophy, equanimity, stoicism, command of temper, self-possession, self-control, self-command, self-restraint, ice water in one's veins, presence of mind, submission, resignation, sufferance, supportance, endurance, longsufferance, forbearance, longanimity, fortitude, patience of Job, patience on a monument, patience 'sovereign o'er transmuted ill', moderation, repression of feelings, subjugation of feeling, restraint, tranquillization, inexcitable, unexcitable, imperturbable, unsusceptible, unpassionate, dispassionate, cold-blooded, irritable, enduring, stoical, Platonic, philosophic, staid, stayed, sober, sober minded, grave, sober as a judge, grave as a judge, sedate, demure, cool-headed, easy-going, peaceful, placid, calm, quiet as a mouse, tranquil, serene, cool as a cucumber, cool as a custard, undemonstrative, temperate, composed, collected, unexcited, unstirred, unruffled, undisturbed, unperturbed, unimpassioned, unoffended, unresisting, meek, tolerant, patient, patient as Job, submissive, tame, content, resigned, chastened, subdued, lamblike, gentle as a lamb, suaviter in modo, mild as mothers milk, soft as peppermint, armed with patience, bearing with, clement, long-suffering, like patience on a monument smiling at grief, aequo animo, in cold blood, more in sorrow than in anger, Int, patience!, and shuffle the cards, cool calm and collected, keep calm in the midst of a storm, adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, mens aequa in arduis philosophia stemma non inspec, quo me cumque rapit tempestas deferor hospes, they also serve who only stand and wait.

Dejection

N dejection, dejectedness, depression, prosternation, lowness of spirits, depression of spirits, weight on the spirits, oppression on the spirits, damp on the spirits, low spirits, bad spirits, drooping spirits, depressed spirits, heart sinking, heaviness of heart, failure of heart, heaviness, infestivity, gloom, weariness, taedium vitae, disgust of life, mal du pays, anhedonia, melancholy, sadness, il penseroso, melancholia, dismals, blues, lachrymals, mumps, dumps, blue devils, doldrums, vapors, megrims, spleen, horrors, hypochondriasis, pessimism, la maladie sans maladie, despondency, slough of Despond, disconsolateness, hope deferred, blank despondency, voiceless woe, prostration of soul, broken heart, despair, cave of despair, cave of Trophonius demureness, gravity, solemnity, long face, grave face, hypochondriac, seek sorrow, self-tormentor, heautontimorumenos, malade imaginaire, medecin tant pis, croaker, pessimist, mope, mopus, affliction, sorry sight, memento mori, damper, wet blanket, Job's comforter, cheerless, joyless, spiritless, uncheerful, uncheery, unlively, unhappy, melancholy, dismal, somber, dark, gloomy, triste, clouded, murky, lowering, frowning, lugubrious, funereal, mournful, lamentable, dreadful, dreary, flat, dull, dull as a beetle, dull as ditchwater, depressing, melancholy as a gib cat, oppressed with melancholy, a prey to melancholy, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, down in one's luck, heavy-hearted, in the dumps, down in the dumps, in the suds, in the sulks, in the doldrums, in doleful dumps, in bad humor, sullen, mumpish, dumpish, mopish, moping, moody, glum, sulky, out of sorts, out of humor, out of heart, out of spirits, ill at ease, low spirited, in low spirits, a cup too low, weary, discouraged, disheartened, desponding, chapfallen, chopfallen, jaw fallen, crest fallen, sad, pensive, penseroso, tristful, dolesome, doleful, woebegone, lacrymose, lachrymose, in tears, melancholic, hypped, hypochondriacal, bilious, jaundiced, atrabilious, saturnine, splenetic, lackadaisical, serious, sedate, staid, stayed, grave as a judge, grave as an undertaker, grave as a mustard pot, sober, sober as a judge, solemn, demure, grim, grim-faced, grim-visaged, rueful, wan, long-faced, disconsolate, unconsolable, inconsolable, forlorn, comfortless, desolate, desole, sick at heart, soul sick, heart sick, au desespoir, in despair, lost, overcome, broken down, borne down, bowed down, heartstricken, cut up, dashed, sunk, unnerved, unmanned, down fallen, downtrodden, broken-hearted, careworn, with a long face, with tears in one's eyes, sadly, the countenance falling, the heart failing, the heart sinking within one, a plague of sighing and grief, thick-ey'd musing and curs'd melancholy, the sickening pang of hope deferred.

Affectation

N affectation, affectedness, acting a part, pretense boasting, charlatanism, quackery, shallow profundity, pretension, airs, pedantry, purism, precisianism, euphuism, teratology, mannerism, simagree, grimace, conceit, foppery, dandyism, man millinery, coxcombry, puppyism, stiffness, formality, buckram, prudery, demureness, coquetry, mock modesty, minauderie, sentimentalism, mauvais honte, false shame, affector, performer, actor, pedant, pedagogue, doctrinaire, purist, euphuist, mannerist, grimacier, lump of affectation, precieuse ridicule, bas bleu, blue stocking, poetaster, prig, charlatan, petit maitre, flatterer, coquette, prude, puritan, affected, full of affectation, pretentious, pedantic, stilted, stagy, theatrical, big-sounding, ad captandum, canting, insincere, not natural, unnatural, self-conscious, maniere, artificial, overwrought, overdone, overacted, euphuist, stiff, starch, formal, prim, smug, demure, tire a quatre epingles, quakerish, puritanical, prudish, pragmatical, priggish, conceited, coxcomical, foppish, dandified, finical, finikin, mincing, simpering, namby-pamby, sentimental, conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.

Modesty

N modesty, humility, diffidence, timidity, retiring disposition, unobtrusiveness, bashfulness, mauvaise honte, blush, blushing, verecundity, self-knowledge, reserve, constraint, demureness, blushing honors, modest, diffident, humble, timid, timorous, bashful, shy, nervous, skittish, coy, sheepish, shamefaced, blushing, overmodest, unpretending, unpretentious, unobtrusive, unassuming, unostentatious, unboastful, unaspiring, poor in spirit, out of countenance, reserved, constrained, demure, humbly, quietly, privately, without ceremony, without beat of drum, sans fa, not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.

Doubt

N unbelief doubt, unbelief, disbelief, misbelief, discredit, miscreance, infidelity, dissent, change of opinion, retraction, doubt, skepticism, scepticism, misgiving, demure, distrust, mistrust, cynicism, misdoubt, suspicion, jealousy, scruple, qualm, onus probandi, incredibility, incredibleness, incredulity, doubter, skeptic, cynic, unbeliever, unbelieving, skeptical, sceptical, incredulous as to, skeptical as to, distrustful as to, shy as to, suspicious of, doubting, doubtful, disputable, unworthy of, undeserving of belief, questionable, suspect, suspicious, open to suspicion, open to doubt, staggering, hard to believe, incredible, unbelievable, not to be believed, inconceivable, impossible, fallible, undemonstrable, controvertible, cum grano salis, with a grain of salt, with grains of allowance, fronti nulla fides, nimium ne crede colori, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts, beware of Greeks bearing gifts, credat Judaeus Apella, let those believe who may, ad tristem partem stenua est suspicio.

VB disbelieve, discredit, not believe, misbelieve, refuse to admit, refuse to believe, doubt, be doubtful, doubt the truth of, be skeptical as to, diffide, distrust, mistrust, suspect, smoke, scent, smell a rat, have doubts, harbor doubts, entertain doubts, suspicions, have one's doubts, demure, stick at, pause, hesitate, scruple, stop to consider, waver, hang in suspense, hang in doubt, throw doubt upon, raise a question, bring in, call in question, question, challenge, dispute, deny, cavil, cause a doubt, raise a doubt, start a doubt, suggest a doubt, awake a doubt, make suspicion, ergotize, startle, stagger, shake one's faith, shake one's belief, stagger one's faith, stagger one's belief.