decorous

decorous, decent, seemly, proper, nice apply to persons, their utterances, and their behavior, and mean conforming to an accepted standard of what is right or fitting or is regarded as good form.

Something is decorous when it is marked by observance of the proprieties; the term usually implies a dignified, sometimes ceremonious, sometimes prim, formality

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the decorous platitudes of the last century— J. R. Lowell

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done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age—Emerson

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on Sunday mornings the whole school went to church; in the afternoon it had a decorous walk— H. G. Wells

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Something is decent (for other sense, see CHASTE) when it keeps within the bounds of what is appropriate or fitting to its kind or class, not only from the points of view of morality or social propriety but also from those of good taste or the exigencies of a situation

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to praise a man's self, cannot be decent, except it be in rare cases— Bacon

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he cast only one glance at the dead face on the pillow, which Dolly had smoothed with decent care— George Eliot

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his decent reticence is branded as hypocrisy— Maugham

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Something is seemly when it is not only decorous or decent, but also pleasing to the eye, ear, or mind of the observer

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to make a seemly answer— Shak.

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a seemly display of enthusiasm

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it was not seemly that one so old should go out of his way to see beauty, especially in a woman— Galsworthy

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the safety of human society lies in the assumption that every individual composing it, in a given situation, will act in a manner hitherto approved as seemly— Mencken

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Something is proper when it is exactly what it should be according to accepted ethical or social standards or conventions

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Henchard's creed was that proper young girls wrote ladies'-hand—nay, he believed that bristling characters were as innate and inseparable a part of refined womanhood as sex itself— Hardy

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a few pages back I was expressing a proper diffidence about any conclusions in view, and here I am, almost shouting in favor of one— Montague

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Something is nice (see also NICE 1; CORRECT) when it satisfies a somewhat fastidious taste in behavior, manners, or speech

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his conduct is not always so nice

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it is not enough for the knight of romance that you agree that his lady is a very nice girl— Justice Holmes

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the undergraduate literary club, whose membership included all nice boys with literary pretensions— Marquand

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Analogous words: formal, conventional, ceremonious, *ceremonial: dignified, elegant (see corresponding nouns at ELEGANCE)

Antonyms: indecorous: blatant