Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character of being reserved; closeness; lack of frankness, openness, or freedom.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The characteristic of being reserved.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • However, I have been instrumental of con - veying deliverance to many such, and I know you feel your need of deliverance also; and your reservedness is a bar to keep you in your present strong-hold, and this conscience has often told you.

    Gleanings of the Vintage, Or Letters to the Spiritual Edification of the ... 1813

  • And this – this emotional reservedness, this clamming up – has never been more true for me than it has been during this first half-year of motherhood.

    How To Lose a Friend in 10 Months | Her Bad Mother 2006

  • He said, I will lay down one rule for you, my Pamela, to observe in your dress; and I will tell you every thing I like or dislike, as it occurs to me: and I would have you do the same, on your part; that nothing may be upon either of our minds that may occasion the least reservedness.

    Pamela 2006

  • The issue, as I said, shewed what the errand was — Its fusty appearance, after the old fusty fellow was marched off, [you must excuse me, my dear,] was in a kind of gloomy, Harlowe-like reservedness in my mother; which upon a few resenting flirts of mine, was followed by a rigorous prohibition of correspondence.

    Clarissa Harlowe 2006

  • And this - this emotional reservedness, this clamming up - has never been more true for me than it has been during this first half-year of motherhood.

    Archive 2006-06-25 2006

  • I must say I love you; and have put on a behaviour to you, that was much against my heart, in hopes to frighten you from your reservedness.

    Pamela 2006

  • And this - this emotional reservedness, this clamming up - has never been more true for me than it has been during this first half-year of motherhood.

    How To Lose a Friend in 10 Months 2006

  • By the end of Emma, class reading emerges as a reliable anchor to sentimental reading, one that secures signifiers of feeling to their correct signifieds and allows Emma to make sense of Mr. Elton's effusions, Mrs. Elton's aggressiveness, Miss Bates's agreeableness, Jane Fairfax's reservedness, and even Mr. Knightley's watchful benevolence.

    Unanswerable Gallantry and Thick-Headed Nonsense: Rereading Box Hill 2000

  • Now, as he marched up the street, the townsfolk came out at every door to see, and could not but be taken with his person and the glory thereof, but wondered at the reservedness of his countenance; for as yet he spake more to them by his actions and works than he did by words or smiles.

    The Holy War 2001

  • With splayed fingers, he massaged his forehead as he pondered the rare beauty whose reservedness constantly tormented him.

    Almost a Whisper Charlene Cross 1994

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