respectable
adjectivenouncommon in dialogue
- United States/[ɹɪˈspɛk.tə.bl̩]/
Deserving respect.
adjective
- 1
Deserving respect.
His accomplishments, morals, loyalty, and stature make him a respectable person.
In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
Don't you find respectable people terribly dull?
- 2
Decent; satisfactory.
Turn up to the interview wearing something respectable. She plays a respectable game of chess. He got a respectable B+ on his last exam.
- 3
Moderately well-to-do.
Etymology
Etymology tree English respect Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlomder. Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English respectable From respect + -able.
noun
- 1
A person who is respectable.
They forced their way into the meetings called by the respectables; and the respectables disappeared. It was of their own respectable good pleasure that they withdrew.
The tensions between the "respectables" and the "gay spoilers"
The “respectables”, then, impute to themselves an absence of such character blemishes, or stated in more positive terms, an allegiance to American mainstream morality.
Forms
- plural
- respectables
- comparative
- more respectable
- superlative
- most respectable