decencyn.

1567 T. Drant tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie sig. Av^v Of sortes, and ages thou must note The manner and the guyse. A decensie for stirring youth, For elder folke likewise.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xxiii. 219 Το πρεπον..we in our vulgar call it by a scholasticall terme [decencie] our owne Saxon English terme is [seemelynesse].

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xxiii. 221 Your decencies are of sundrie sorts, according to the many circumstances accompanying our writing, speech or behauiour.

a1610 J. Healey tr. Epictetus Manuall (1636) lix. 79 Thou neglectest another [function] which thou mightest execute with full decency.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 63 The King was allways the most punctual observer of all Decency in his Devotion.

1719 D. Waterland Vindic. Christ's Divinity 107 Why so concern'd about the fitness, and decency of his Interpretation?

1725 I. Watts Logick ii. v. §4 The great Design of Prudence..is to determine and manage every Affair with Decency, and to the best Advantage.

1762 D. Hume Hist. Eng. (new ed.) III. liv. 173 His discourse on the scaffold was full of decency and courage.

1584 H. Llwyd & D. Powel Hist. Cambria 364 Reseruing two things, that is to say his conscience, and also the decencie of his state.

1649 J. Milton Εικονοκλαστης ii. 17 With Scholastic flourishes beneath the decencie of a King.

1661 S. Morgan Sphere of Gentry iv. v. 78 According to the Decency of the said Name of the Duke of Somerset and the nobility of his..estate.

1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie iii. xiv. 130 Neither can Art forme a fashion of more stately decencie, then she hath done on the Stagge.

?1677 S. Primatt City & Covntry Purchaser & Builder 80 For decency it will be requisite not to have the girders altogether so deep as ten inches in the second, third, and fourth Story.

1682 J. Norris tr. Hierocles Golden Verses 39 To bear..the loss of our goods with mildness and decency.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 45 He [Wm. Earl of Pembroke]..liv'd towards the Favourites with that decency, as would not suffer them to censure or reproach his Master's judgment.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 342 We do sometimes out of vanity or decency what we could do out of inclination and duty.

1732–3 J. Swift Let. Mrs. Pilkington 1 Jan. I cannot with decency shew them, except to a very few.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. x. viii. 69 If I had not the Patience of fifty Jobs, you would make me forget all Decency and Decorum. View more context for this quotation

1800 W. Wordsworth in W. Wordsworth & S. T. Coleridge Lyrical Ballads II. 158 Many, I believe, there are Who live a life of virtuous decency.

1855 Ld. Houghton Let. in T. W. Reid Life Ld. Houghton (1890) I. xi. 516 As I have got two letters from you to-day, I must write in decency before I go to sleep.

1883 W. Gladstone in Times 9 June Less than that I cannot say in justice and in decency.

1639 N. N. tr. J. Du Bosc Compl. Woman F iv Peradventure they would..accuse him for not writing, as decency obliged him therein..Is there one sole word in all this worke..to make one blush in reading it?

1685 Earl of Roscommon Ess. Translated Verse (ed. 2) 8 Immodest words admit of no defence; For want of Decency, is want of Sense.

a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 137 Sir Elisha [Leightoun]..maintained an outward decency..Yet he was a very vicious man.

1886 H. H. Johnston Kilimanjaro Exp. ii. 28 The black glistening forms of the burly negroes on whom nakedness sits with decency.

1886 H. H. Johnston Kilimanjaro Exp. xix. 433 Both sexes have little notion or conception of decency, the men especially seeming to be unconscious of any impropriety in nakedness.

1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 166. ⁋2 Those whom a very little assistance would enable to support themselves with decency.

1785 W. Paley Princ. Moral & Polit. Philos. iii. ix There is a certain appearance, attendance, establishment, and mode of living, which custom has annexed to the several ranks and orders of civil life (and which compose what is called decency).

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost viii. 601 Those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions, mixt with Love And sweet compliance. View more context for this quotation

1673 J. Dryden Marriage a-la-Mode Ep. Ded. sig. Bii^v They have copy'd..the Delicacy of Expression, and the Decencies of Behaviour, from your Lordship.

1700 J. Dryden tr. G. Boccaccio Sigismonda & Guiscardo 701 O ever faithful heart, I have perform'd the ceremonial part, The decencies of grief.

1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 241 I told her I thought it was a Decency to the Ladies.

1738 A. Pope Wks. II. ii. 164 Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, Content to dwell in Decencies for ever.

1843 T. B. Macaulay Machiavelli in Crit. & Hist. Ess. I. 109 He became careless of the decencies which were expected from a man so highly distinguished in the literary and political world.

1817 T. R. Malthus Ess. Princ. Population (ed. 5) III. iii. xiii. 23 He may be..better able to command the decencies..of life.

1832 G. C. Lewis Remarks Use & Abuse Polit. Terms xiii. 111 In this sense the poor are those who..severally enjoy a less quantity of decencies and necessaries.

1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xxiv. 213 The little man was buttoning on a pair of black gaiters, the only serviceable decency he had at his command.

1894 H. Sidgwick in Times 13 Jan. 11/4 It was not easy to distinguish decencies and comforts on the one hand and luxuries on the other.