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Webster 1913 Edition


Respectability

Re-spectˊa-bil′i-ty

(r?-sp?ktˊ?-b?l′?-t?)
,
Noun.
The state or quality of being respectable; the state or quality which deserves or commands respect.

Webster 1828 Edition


Respectability

RESPECTABIL'ITY

,
Noun.
State or quality of being respectable; the state or qualities which deserve or command respect.

Definition 2024


respectability

respectability

English

Noun

respectability (usually uncountable, plural respectabilities)

  1. The quality of being respectable.
    • 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, Prologue:
      Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: [] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
    • 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport:
      But once again Hodgson's men found a way to get the result they required and there is a real air of respectability about their campaign even though they had to survive a first-half siege from a Ukraine side desperate for the win they needed to progress.
  2. The class of respectable people.

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