Noun

(dignities)

A quality or state worthy of esteem and respect.

* 1752 , (Henry Fielding), , I. viii

He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity .

* 1981 , African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights , art. 5

Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.

* 2008 , Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) [Switzerland]

'The dignity' of living beings with regard to plants: Moral consideration of plants for their own sake', 3: ... the ECNH has been expected to make proposals from an ethical perspective to concretise the constitutional term ' dignity of living beings with regard to plants. Dignity of Plants

Decorum, formality, stateliness.

* 1934 , Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay :

Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.Columbia World of Quotations 1996.

High office, rank, or station.

* 1781 , Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , F. III. 231:

He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.

* Macaulay

And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?

One holding high rank; a dignitary.

* Bible, Jude 8.

These filthy dreamers speak evil of dignities .

(obsolete) Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.

* Sir Thomas Browne

Sciences concluding from dignities , and principles known by themselves.

Noun

(-)

The characteristic of being a man; maleness; masculinity; manliness; manhood.

* 1845 , Orestes Augustus Brownson, Charles Elwood , p. 161:

Every man is a man if he chooses to be, and has in himself all that he needs in order to be a man in the full significance of the term; and therefore no one has any occasion to borrow a part of his manship from his brother.

* 1902 , Lebbeus Harding Rogers, The Kite Trust (a Romance of Wealth) , p. 324:

He certainly had nothing to do with the choosing of his manship , any more than his sister had of her womanhood.

* 2003 , Leon Dash, When Children Want Children: The Urban Crisis of Teenage Childbearing , p. 200:

They were middle-class and, therefore, "had a better attitude towards girls because boys [in Washington Highlands] like beating girls to show their manship .

* 2007 , Kevin P. Novak, Adam Versus Adam , p. 69:

The manship of Jesus was hid from the eyes of men as completely as the Godship.

(archaic) position of honor or respect; dignity, worthiness

:* {{quote-book

, year=c1400 , title=Cursor Mundi , url= , passage=Ac fourti winter Madan mid mansipe held his riche. }}

(archaic) honor shown to a person; homage, respect; courtesy

:* {{quote-book

, year=c1330 , title=The Romance of Guy of Warwick , url= , passage=For los and priis þou mi?t þer winne & manschip to þe & al þi kinne. }}

(archaic) manly spirit or conduct; courage, valor, gallantry; chivalry

:* {{quote-book

, year=c1465 , title=The Paston Letters , url= , passage=And how that ever ye do, hold up your manship . }}

(archaic) human condition

:* {{quote-book

, year=c1400 , title=Cursor Mundi , url= , passage=Bot he was ferliful to call if þou it sagh..þat in a man all manscip war. }}