PROPRIETY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does propriety mean? 

• PROPRIETY (noun)
  The noun PROPRIETY has 1 sense:

1. correct or appropriate behavior

  Familiarity information: PROPRIETY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROPRIETY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Correct or appropriate behavior

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

correctitude; properness; propriety

Hypernyms ("propriety" is a kind of...):

behavior; behaviour; conduct; demeanor; demeanour; deportment ((behavioral attributes) the way a person behaves toward other people)

Attribute:

proper (marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness)

improper (not suitable or right or appropriate)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "propriety"):

decorousness; decorum (propriety in manners and conduct)

appropriateness; rightness (appropriate conduct; doing the right thing)

correctness (the quality of conformity to social expectations)

good form (behavior that conforms to social conventions of the time)

priggishness; primness (exaggerated and arrogant properness)

modesty; reserve (formality and propriety of manner)

grace; seemliness (a sense of propriety and consideration for others)

decency (the quality of conforming to standards of propriety and morality)

Antonym:

impropriety (an improper demeanor)

 Context examples 

He was called before the curtain, and with great propriety appeared, leading Hagar, whose singing was considered more wonderful than all the rest of the performance put together.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Retaining every minute form of respect, every propriety of my station, I could still meet him in argument without fear or uneasy restraint; this suited both him and me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was a struggle between propriety and vanity; but vanity got the better, and then Elizabeth was happy again.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Elinor then ventured to doubt the propriety of her receiving such a present from a man so little, or at least so lately known to her.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Darcy, with grave propriety, requested to be allowed the honour of her hand, but in vain.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Mr. and Mrs. Elton appeared; and all the smiles and the proprieties passed.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The propriety of my leaving it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We were at breakfast when the Colonel’s butler rushed in with all his propriety shaken out of him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Thank you,” said Catherine, in some distress, from a doubt of the propriety of accepting such an offer.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

This is the end of all the privacy and propriety which was talked about at first.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)