SUAVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does suave mean? 

• SUAVE (adjective)
  The adjective SUAVE has 2 senses:

1. having a sophisticated charm

2. smoothly agreeable and courteous with a degree of sophistication

  Familiarity information: SUAVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUAVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a sophisticated charm

Synonyms:

debonair; debonaire; debonnaire; suave

Context example:

a debonair gentleman

Similar:

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

Derivation:

suaveness (the quality of being bland and gracious or ingratiating in manner)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Smoothly agreeable and courteous with a degree of sophistication

Synonyms:

bland; politic; smooth; suave

Context example:

the manager pacified the customer with a smooth apology for the error

Similar:

diplomatic; diplomatical (using or marked by tact in dealing with sensitive matters or people)

Derivation:

suaveness; suavity (the quality of being bland and gracious or ingratiating in manner)

 Context examples 

His friend and secretary, Mr. Lucas, is undoubtedly a foreigner, chocolate brown, wily, suave, and catlike, with a poisonous gentleness of speech.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The gentleman who saw me was particularly suave in manner, but uncommunicative in equal proportion.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He had changed little, was dressed like a young man of fashion—he was always a bit of a dandy—and preserved the same quiet, suave manner which had formerly distinguished him.

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

His voice was as smooth and suave as his countenance, as he advanced with a plump little hand extended, murmuring his regret for having missed us at his first visit.

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

He lifted up the sable waves of hair which lay horizontally over his brow, and showed a solid enough mass of intellectual organs, but an abrupt deficiency where the suave sign of benevolence should have risen.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)