| 单词 | genteel |
| 释义 | genteel (once / 1497 pages) adj Although the adjective genteel means high-class and refined, it is often used today in a somewhat mocking tone, as though good manners and elegance are passé. Still, it would be nice if more people were a little more genteel. The word genteel comes from the Old French word gentil, "high-born, noble." We can see the similarity to the word gentle, as in gentleman and gentlewoman. The word is especially powerful in describing Chaucer's Knight in the Canterbury Tales as "a verray, parfit gentil knyght" — "a true, perfect, noble knight," dignified, patrician, and as genteel as they come. Today, it describes someone elegant, fashionable, and well-bred. Picture someone in riding jodhpurs reading "Town and Country" while astride a magnificent show horse. WORD FAMILYgenteel: genteeler, genteelest, genteelly, genteelness+/genteelness: genteelnesses USAGE EXAMPLESIt was his “genteel, Southern” Aunt Dottie, a Baton Rouge resident, who first suggested over dinner he write a children’s book. Washington Times(Dec 25, 2016) Even in countries such as Sweden, where politics was once genteel and thoroughly, well, boring, far-right populists are rising rapidly. Slate(Dec 13, 2016) On other songs, like “_____45_____,” a delirious riff between Vernon and a saxophone, he was minimal and genteel, bending his voice away from the beat. The New Yorker(Dec 07, 2016) adj marked by refinement in taste and manners a genteel old lady Syn civilised, civilized, cultivated, cultured, polite refined (used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel |
| 随便看 |
|
英语词典包含147318条英英释义在线翻译词条，基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。