RESPECTABILITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does respectability mean? 

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

1. honorableness by virtue of being respectable and having a good reputation

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• RESPECTABILITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Honorableness by virtue of being respectable and having a good reputation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

reputability; respectability

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

honorableness; honourableness (the quality of deserving honor or respect; characterized by honor)

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

decency (the quality of being polite and respectable)

Antonym:

unrespectability (dishonorableness by virtue of lacking respectability or a good reputation)

Derivation:

respectable (deserving of esteem and respect)

respectable (characterized by socially or conventionally acceptable morals)

 Context examples 

He surrounded himself with an atmosphere of respectability, and walked secure in it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In respectability of character, there can be no doubt that they are.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Their respectability was as dear to her as her own, and a daily intercourse had become precious by habit.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Our importance, our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia's character.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I saw her in a black gown and widow's cap; frigid, perhaps, but not uncivil: a model of elderly English respectability.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He is the very type of conventional British respectability, and the very man as a witness to impress another Briton.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But she did not lose her head this time, for she seated Brissenden in her parlor's grandeur of respectability.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Can't a fellow take a little innocent amusement now and then without losing his respectability?" asked Laurie, looking nettled.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

For a short time he sat deep in thought, after Elinor had ceased to speak;—at last, and as if it were rather an effort, he said, Colonel Brandon seems a man of great worth and respectability.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride—from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)