Respectability

Definitions

1. The quality of being respectable.
   uncountable, usually
2. The class of respectable people.
   uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“Though he knew it not, the subtle spirit of vagabondage had taken possession of his soul, and even of his hat, which seemed suddenly to have⟳ lost its original respectability, and acquired an air of dissoluteness.”

“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⟳.”

CEFR level