pruderyn.

1708 C. Cibber Lady's Last Stake ii. 25 There's something in the open Freedom of her Humour, so much beyond the Close Reserves of Formal Prudery.

1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey I. 140 A Frenchman, whatever be his talents, has no sort of prudery in shewing them.

1813 Salem Gaz. 2 July 4/1 A lady in the west end of the town has carried her prudery so far, as to separate the writings of male and female authors in her library.

1880 ‘V. Lee’ Stud. 18th Cent. Italy iv. iv. 174 Ecclesiastical prudery would suffer no woman on the stage.

1925 Amer. Mercury Aug. 434/1 A maiden aunt who had been educated strictly in the precepts of hyper-Victorian prudery.

1994 N.Y. Times 27 Nov. i. 3/1 For decades under Mao, prudery was the ideological fashion, at least out in the open. But in Deng Xiaoping's era of reform, sex—like capitalism—has enjoyed a huge resurgence.

1774 G. Colman Man of Business iii. 42 Let me flatter myself it is mere coyness—and these little pruderies..call forth new graces in your character.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth iv, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 112 She has stopped my mouth over long with her pruderies and her scruples.

1888 Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 26 Feb. 3/7 They are very amusing with their small pruderies.

1929 Times 30 Dec. 12/3 Queen Victoria's reign, with all its little restraints, repressions, and pruderies.

1989 Nineteenth-Cent. Lit. 44 417 Hardy's accommodations to the pruderies of editors and the reading public.