POLITE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does polite mean? 

• POLITE (adjective)
  The adjective POLITE has 3 senses:

1. showing regard for others in manners, speech, behavior, etc.

2. marked by refinement in taste and manners

3. not rude; marked by satisfactory (or especially minimal) adherence to social usages and sufficient but not noteworthy consideration for others

  Familiarity information: POLITE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLITE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing regard for others in manners, speech, behavior, etc.

Similar:

mannerly; well-mannered (socially correct in behavior)

courteous; gracious; nice (exhibiting courtesy and politeness)

Attribute:

niceness; politeness (a courteous manner that respects accepted social usage)

Antonym:

impolite (not polite)

Derivation:

politeness (the act of showing regard for others)

Sense 2

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)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not rude; marked by satisfactory (or especially minimal) adherence to social usages and sufficient but not noteworthy consideration for others

Synonyms:

civil; polite

Context example:

even if he didn't like them he should have been civil

Attribute:

civility (formal or perfunctory politeness)

Derivation:

politeness (a courteous manner that respects accepted social usage)

 Context examples 

Though nothing could be more polite than Lady Middleton's behaviour to Elinor and Marianne, she did not really like them at all.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This he might safely do; because every thing about him was magnificent, regular, and polite.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He was a dark, sallow, clean-shaven, silent person, but he had polite manners and a pleasant smile.

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

“He is perfectly well behaved, polite, and unassuming,” said her uncle.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I mean if I could talk easy that way, an' polite, an' all the rest.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

At Silver's polite salute he somewhat flushed.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Well, you are not examined in Greek roots in polite society, which is lucky for some of us.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am not at all polite, now, to the Misses Nettingalls' young ladies, and shouldn't dote on any of them, if they were twice as many and twenty times as beautiful.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He addressed me precisely in his ordinary manner, or what had, of late, been his ordinary manner—one scrupulously polite.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Curly black hair, brown skin, big black eyes, handsome nose, fine teeth, small hands and feet, taller than I am, very polite, for a boy, and altogether jolly.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)