chaste

chaste adj Chaste, pure, modest, decent are comparable when they mean free from all taint of what is lewd or salacious.

Chaste fundamentally implies an opposition to immoral in the sense of that word in which it connotes lustfulness and licentiousness. The term therefore suggests a refraining from all acts or thoughts that incite desire or are not in accordance with virginity or marriage vows

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strew me over with maiden flowers, that all the world may know I was a chaste wife to my grave— Shak.

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It particularly stresses restraint and an avoidance of anything thought to defile or make unclean not only the love of man and woman but whatever should be free from cheapness, debasement, or vulgarization

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a chaste style

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the chaste beauty of a work of art

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one of the most striking characteristics of a man who is really in love, is that his conversation is chaste. He is willing to analyze sentiment, but not sensation— Dimnet

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the chaste and abstracted intellect of the scholar— Wylie

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Pure differs from chaste mainly in its suggestion of freedom from all taint of evil thought or immoral desires; it implies innocence and absence of temptation rather than, as chaste implies, control over one's impulses and actions

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come, pensive nun, devout and pure— Milton

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blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God— Mt 5:8

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it may have been that ... he had never known any woman, that he had been pure as a saint— Bromfieldy

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Modest and decent are frequent in this sense as applied especially to behavior and to dress as outward manifestations of an inward chastity or purity. Modest usually also implies an absence of brazenness, boldness, or other characteristics unbefitting one who is by nature chaste or pure; decent, a due concern for what is regarded as seemly or proper (see also DECOROUS)

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fair, sweet, and modest maid forgive my thoughts— Beaumont & Fletcher

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dressing in so modest a way and behaving with such decorum— Graves

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decent men leading decent lives

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a paper decent people don't see— Rose Macaulay

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Analogous words: virtuous, *moral, righteous, ethical: *faithful, true, constant, loyal: austere, *severe

Antonyms: lewd, wanton, immoral: bizarre (of style, effect)

Contrasted words: obscene, gross, *coarse, vulgar, ribald: *licentious, lustful, lascivious, lecherous: *fantastic, grotesque