RESPECTABLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does respectably mean? 

• RESPECTABLY (adverb)
  The adverb RESPECTABLY has 2 senses:

1. to a tolerably worthy extent

2. in a decent and morally reputable manner

  Familiarity information: RESPECTABLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RESPECTABLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

To a tolerably worthy extent

Synonyms:

creditably; respectably

Context example:

he did respectably well for his age

Pertainym:

respectable (characterized by socially or conventionally acceptable morals)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a decent and morally reputable manner

Context example:

the film ends with the middle-aged romancers respectably married

Pertainym:

respectable (deserving of esteem and respect)

 Context examples 

She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl; and I should be happy to see her respectably settled.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

When I said to him that I hoped Mrs. Steerforth and Miss Dartle were well, he answered respectfully (and of course respectably), that they were tolerably well, he thanked me, and had sent their compliments.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The young ladies were introduced to each other, Miss Tilney expressing a proper sense of such goodness, Miss Morland with the real delicacy of a generous mind making light of the obligation; and Mrs. Hughes, satisfied with having so respectably settled her young charge, returned to her party.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She had been solicited, when about two-and-twenty, to change her name, by the young man, who not long afterwards found a more willing mind in her younger sister; and Lady Russell had lamented her refusal; for Charles Musgrove was the eldest son of a man, whose landed property and general importance were second in that country, only to Sir Walter's, and of good character and appearance; and however Lady Russell might have asked yet for something more, while Anne was nineteen, she would have rejoiced to see her at twenty-two so respectably removed from the partialities and injustice of her father's house, and settled so permanently near herself.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

However, when I had brushed my hair very smooth, and put on my black frock—which, Quakerlike as it was, at least had the merit of fitting to a nicety—and adjusted my clean white tucker, I thought I should do respectably enough to appear before Mrs. Fairfax, and that my new pupil would not at least recoil from me with antipathy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)