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  1. genteel love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Refined in manner; well-bred and polite.
  2. adj. Free from vulgarity or rudeness.
  3. adj. Elegantly stylish: genteel manners and appearance.
  4. adj. Striving to convey a manner or appearance of refinement and respectability. See Synonyms at polite.
  5. adj. Marked by affected and somewhat prudish refinement.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Polite; well-bred; decorous in manners or behavior; refined: as, genteel company.
  2. Adapted to, suitable for, or characteristic of polite society; free from vulgarity or meanness in appearance, quality, amount, etc.; elegant; becoming; adequate: as, genteel manners; a genteel address; genteel comedy; a genteel income or allowance.
  3. Fashionable; stylish; à la mode.
  4. Synonyms Genteel, Polite, well-mannered, polished. Genteel refers to the outward chiefly; polite to the outward as an expression of inward refinement and kindness. Genteel has latterly tended to express a somewhat fastidious pride of refinement, family position, and the like. Genteel is often largely negative, meaning free from what is low, vulgar, or connected with the uncultivated classes; polite is positive and active, meaning that one acts in a certain way. Polite has, however, a passive meaning, that of ‘polished’: as, polite society, polite literature. See polite.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Polite and well-mannered.
  2. adj. Stylish or elegant.
  3. adj. Aristocratic

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Possessing or exhibiting the qualities popularly regarded as belonging to high birth and breeding; free from vulgarity, or lowness of taste or behavior; adapted to a refined or cultivated taste; polite; well-bred.
  2. adj. Graceful in mien or form; elegant in appearance, dress, or manner. Law.
  3. adj. Suited to the position of lady or a gentleman.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. marked by refinement in taste and manners

Etymologies

  1. From French gentil (Wiktionary)
  2. French gentil, from Old French; see gentle. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘genteel’ has been looked up 3109 times, loved by 4 people, added to 59 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 8.