GENTEEL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does genteel mean? 

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

1. marked by refinement in taste and manners

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• GENTEEL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by refinement in taste and manners

Synonyms:

civilised; civilized; cultivated; cultured; genteel; polite

Context example:

polite society

Similar:

refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

Derivation:

genteelness (elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression)

 Context examples 

Susan, who had an innate taste for the genteel and well-appointed, was eager to hear, and Fanny could not but indulge herself in dwelling on so beloved a theme.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Micawber put on her brown gloves, and assumed a genteel languor.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No, Miss Jane, not exactly: you are genteel enough; you look like a lady, and it is as much as ever I expected of you: you were no beauty as a child.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He receives these wares not only from treacherous valets or maids, but frequently from genteel ruffians, who have gained the confidence and affection of trusting women.

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

"But why should you think," said Lucy, looking ashamed of her sister, "that there are not as many genteel young men in Devonshire as Sussex?"

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He were afraid of none, not he; on'y Silver—Silver was that genteel.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“To be sure,” said Harriet, in a mortified voice, “he is not so genteel as real gentlemen.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"Your lady may prefer this. It's a superior article, a most desirable color, quite chaste and genteel," he said, shaking out a comfortable gray shawl, and throwing it over Jo's shoulders.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So genteel and easy!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He was a man of excellent birth and education, who had squandered a fortune upon the turf, and who lived now by doing a little quiet and genteel book-making in the sporting clubs of London.

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