genteel

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: gen=teel

CIDE DICTIONARY

genteel, a. [F. gentil noble, pretty, graceful. See Gentle.].

•  Possessing or exhibiting the qualities popularly regarded as belonging to high birth and breeding; free from vulgarity, or lowness of taste or behavior; adapted to a refined or cultivated taste; polite; well-bred; as, genteel company, manners, address.  [1913 Webster]
•  Graceful in mien or form; elegant in appearance, dress, or manner; as, the lady has a genteel person. Law.  [1913 Webster]
•  Suited to the position of lady or a gentleman; as, to live in a genteel allowance.

Syn. -- Polite; well-bred; refined; polished.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

genteel, adj.
1 affectedly or ostentatiously refined or stylish.
2 often iron. of or appropriate to the upper classes.

Derivative

genteelly adv. genteelness n.

Etymology

earlier gentile, readoption of F gentil GENTLE

DEVIL DICTIONARY

genteel

adj. Refined, after the fashion of a gent.

Observe with care, my son, the distinction I reveal:
A gentleman is gentle and a gent genteel.
Heed not the definitions your "Unabridged" presents,
For dictionary makers are generally gents.
G.J.

THESAURUS

genteel

Victorian, affected, appropriate, aristocratic, artificial, becoming, blue-blooded, braw, cavalier, chic, chivalrous, civil, classy, clothes-conscious, confined, cosmopolitan, county, courteous, courtly, cultivated, cultured, dapper, dashing, debonair, decent, decorous, distingue, dressed to advantage, dressed to kill, ducal, elegant, exalted, exquisite, fashionable, felicitous, fitting, formal, gentle, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, graceful, gracious, happy, high, high-class, highbred, insular, intolerant, jaunty, kinglike, kingly, knightly, la-di-da, ladylike, mannered, mannerly, meet, mincing, narrow, natty, neat, nifty, nobby, noble, of gentle blood, of rank, overdone, parochial, patrician, polished, polite, pompous, posh, pretentious, prig, priggish, princelike, princely, prissy, proper, provincial, prudish, puritanical, putting on airs, queenlike, queenly, quite the lady, recherche, refined, respectable, right, ritzy, royal, seemly, sharp, silk-stocking, sleek, smart, smug, snazzy, soigne, soignee, sophisticated, spiffy, spruce, stilted, straitlaced, stuffy, style-conscious, stylish, suave, suitable, swank, swanky, swell, thoroughbred, titled, tony, too-too, tricksy, trig, trim, uncharitable, unnatural, upper crust, urbane, well-behaved, well-bred, well-brought-up, well-dressed, well-groomed, well-mannered

ROGET THESAURUS

genteel

Fashion

N fashion, style, ton, bon ton, society, good society, polite society, monde, drawing-room, civilized life, civilization, town, beau monde, high life, court, world, fashionable world, gay world, Vanity Fair, show, manners, breeding, air, demeanor, savoir faire, gentlemanliness, gentility, decorum, propriety, biens_eance, conventions of society, Mrs, Grundy, punctilio, form, formality, etiquette, point of etiquette, dress, custom, mode, vogue, go, rage, prevailing taste, fad, trend, bandwagon, furore, thing, in thing, craze, chic, last word, man of fashion, woman of fashion, man of the world, woman of the world, height of fashion, pink of fashion, star of fashion, glass of fashion, leader of fashion, arbiter elegantiarum, the beautiful people, the fashion set, upper ten thousand, elite, smart set, the four hundred, in crowd, fashionable, in fashion, a la mode, comme il faut, admitted in society, admissible in society, presentable, conventional, genteel, well-bred, well mannered, well behaved, well spoken, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, ladylike, civil, polite, polished, refined, thoroughbred, courtly, distingue, unembarrassed, degage, janty, jaunty, dashing, fast, modish, stylish, chic, trendy, recherche, newfangled, all the rage, all the go, with it, in, faddish, in court, in full dress, in evening dress, en grande tenue, fashionably, for fashion's sake, a la francaise, a la parisienne, a l' anglaise, a l' americaine, autre temps autre mauers, chaque pays a sa guise.

Nobility

N nobility, rank, condition, distinction, optimacy, blood, pur sang, birth, high descent, order, quality, gentility, blue blood of Castile, ancien regime, high life, haute monde, upper classes, upper ten thousand, the four hundred, elite, aristocracy, great folks, fashionable world, peer, peerage, house of lords, house of peers, lords, lords temporal and spiritual, noblesse, noble, nobleman, lord, lordling, grandee, magnifico, hidalgo, daimio, daimyo, samurai, shizoku, don, donship, aristocrat, swell, three- tailed bashaw, gentleman, squire, squireen, patrician, laureate, gentry, gentlefolk, squirarchy, better sort magnates, primates, optimates, pantisocracy, king, atheling, prince, duke, marquis, marquisate, earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret, baronet, baronetcy, knight, knighthood, count, armiger, laird, signior, seignior, esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour, emir, ameer, scherif, sharif, effendi, wali, sahib, chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave, pasha, rajah, waldgrave, princess, begum, duchess, marchioness, countess, lady, dame, memsahib, Do$a, maharani, rani, personage of distinction, man of distinction, personage of rank, man of rank, personage of mark, man of mark, notables, notabilities, celebrity, bigwig, magnate, great man, star, superstar, big bug, big gun, great gun, gilded rooster, magni nominis umbra, every inch a king, noble, exalted, of rank, princely, titled, patrician, aristocratic, high-, well-born, of gentle blood, genteel, comme il faut, gentlemanlike, courtly, highly respectable, in high quarters, Adel sitzt im Gemuthe nicht im Gebluete, adelig und edel sind zweierlei, noblesse oblige.