DEMURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does demure mean? 

• DEMURE (adjective)
  The adjective DEMURE has 1 sense:

1. affectedly modest or shy especially in a playful or provocative way

  Familiarity information: DEMURE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEMURE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Affectedly modest or shy especially in a playful or provocative way

Synonyms:

coy; demure; overmodest

Similar:

modest (not offensive to sexual mores in conduct or appearance)

Derivation:

demureness (the affectation of being demure in a provocative way)

demureness (the trait of behaving with reserve and decorum)

 Context examples 

Yes, it was Gomez, but no longer the Gomez of the demure smile and the mask-like expression.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Each and all were answered by a smile, a bow, and a demure "Yes" or "No" with the chill on.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was strange to see the gleam and passion fade out of the man’s face, and the demure mask of the valet replace it.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I think I see him now, trying to be as demure and composed as Anhalt ought, through the two long speeches.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He saw a short word prepared for Emma, and given to her with a look sly and demure.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The particular one at which my cabman pulled up had an air of smug and demure respectability in its old-fashioned iron railings, its massive folding-door, and its shining brasswork.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was an elderly man, thin, demure, and commonplace—by no means the conception one forms of a Russian nobleman.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There we found Mr. James Wilder, demure and courtly, but with some trace of that wild terror of the night before still lurking in his furtive eyes and in his twitching features.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lucy, with a demure and settled air, seemed determined to make no contribution to the comfort of the others, and would not say a word; and almost every thing that WAS said, proceeded from Elinor, who was obliged to volunteer all the information about her mother's health, their coming to town, &c. which Edward ought to have inquired about, but never did.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

With what a demure assumption of being immensely older and wiser than I, the fairy little woman said I was a silly boy; and then laughed so charmingly that I forgot the pain of being called by that disparaging name, in the pleasure of looking at her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)