Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Soberness; sedateness; modesty.
  • noun Sweetness.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Things were beginning to assume an ugly complexion; Lapoulle was doubling his big fists in a way that looked like business, and Pache, with the pangs of hunger gnawing at his vitals, laid aside his natural douceness and insisted on an explanation.

    The Downfall ��mile Zola 1871

  • Being in this sober frame of mind, allow me to wind up this chapter -- the last catastrophe of my eventful life that I mean at present to make public -- with a few serious reflections; as it fears me, that, in much of what I have set down, ill-natured people may see a good deal scarcely consistent with my character for douceness and circumspection; but if many wonderfuls have befallen to my share, it would be well to remember that a man's lot is not of his own making.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • Being in this sober frame of mind, allow me to wind up this chapter -- the last catastrophe of my eventful life that I mean at present to make public -- with a few serious reflections; as it fears me, that, in much of what I have set down, ill-natured people may see a good deal scarcely consistent with my character for douceness and circumspection; but if many wonderfuls have befallen to my share, it would be well to remember that a man's lot is not of his own making.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

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