Meaning of couth | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Social grace, refinement, sophistication; etiquette, manners.
   uncountable, usually
2. A person with social graces; a refined or sophisticated person.
   rare, uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“That man has no couth.”

“There is an aspect of the cultural conservative argument that sometimes drifts dangerously close⟳ to tha view⟳, elitist to the core, as elitist as the New Class, as elitist as limousine liberalism: The public ain't got no couth. You can hear⟳ those old-fashioned elitist wheels spinning: Maybe we need⟳ a few government regulations to deal⟳ with the couth shortage.”

“My daughters have⟳ long and inappropriately been members of the Committee to Reform⟳ Dad's Hygiene, taking me to task for my supposed lack of couth.”

“Couth and manners are intensely subjective concepts. Each culture has its own⟳ standards of acceptable table manners, for instance.”

“You got no couth, Ed. You was raised no-count is what you were. No count⟳ and you ain't got a lick of couth.”

“We transformed the uncouths into couths, the unkempts into kempts, the inerts into erts! We did it all by speaking to teen-agers on their own⟳ terms and in their own⟳ language.”

“I'm going to hit that "Gulf of Texas" beach with a bundle of couths and suaves because those Texas gals that hang⟳ around the big shrimp boats are used to good living.”

CEFR level