honesty

honesty, honor, integrity, probity are comparable when meaning uprightness as evidenced in character and actions.

Honesty implies refusal to lie, steal, defraud, or deceive

{

you can rely on his honesty

}

{

he is a man of scrupulous honesty

}

{

this crisis will be surmounted if the Church has the faith and courage, and, above all, the common honesty, to face it candidly— Inge

}

{

was not greatly pleased with Lincoln, though admitting his honesty and fair capability— W. C. Ford

}

Honor (see also FAME) adds to honesty the implication of high-mindedness or a nice sense of allegiance to the standards of one's profession, calling, or position

{

business honor is the foundation of trade

}

{

I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more— Lovelace

}

{

the fourth generation of Ralstons had nothing left in the way of convictions save an acute sense of honor in private and business matters— Wharton

}

{

a national administration of such integrity . . . that its honor at home will ensure respect abroad— Eisenhower

}

Integrity implies such rectitude that one is incorruptible or incapable of being false to a trust or a responsibility or to one's own standards

{

his unimpeachable integrity as treasurer of a widows' and orphans' fund— Hawthorne

}

{

the poet's sense of responsibility to nothing but his own inner voice, is perhaps his only way of preserving poetic integrity against the influences of a perverse generation—Day Lewis

}

Probity stresses tried or proved honesty or integrity

{

that sort of probity which such men as Bailey possess— Keats

}

{

probity in domestic policy and wise judgment in foreign policy— E. Stevenson

}

Analogous words: veracity, *truth, verity: uprightness, justness, conscientiousness, scrupulousness (see corresponding adjectives at UPRIGHT): candidness or candor, openness, plainness, frankness (see corresponding adjectives at FRANK): reliability, trustworthiness, dependability (see corresponding adjectives at RELIABLE): rectitude, virtue, *goodness

Antonyms: dishonesty

Contrasted words: untruthfulness, deceitfulness, mendaciousness or mendacity (see corresponding adjec-tives at DISHONEST): guile, duplicity, *deceit