Noun

(en-noun)

The quality of being respectable.

*

*:Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability' out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of ' respectability :it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

*{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport

, title= England 1-0 Ukraine , passage=But once again Hodgson's men found a way to get the result they required and there is a real air of respectability about their campaign even though they had to survive a first-half siege from a Ukraine side desperate for the win they needed to progress.}}

The class of respectable people.

Noun

(obsolete) The particular character or essence of someone or something; individuality.

(obsolete) A characteristic; an attribute.

(obsolete) More generally, something owned by someone; a possession.

* 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury :

I was fearful of giving You a very sensible Disgust, in making You'' seem the ''Propriety'' of ''one Man'', when You know Yourself ''ordained'' for the Comfort and Refreshment of ''Multitudes .

The fact of possessing something; ownership.

Suitability, fitness; the quality of being appropriate.

* 1773 ,

I find such a pleasure, sir, in obeying your commands, that I take care to observe them without ever debating their propriety .

* 1850 ,

Now, if we may, with propriety', refer to the people one question, why may we not, with equal ' propriety , refer another?

Correctness in behaviour and morals; good manners, seemliness.

* 1811 , (Jane Austen), :

Elinor then ventured to doubt the propriety of her receiving such a present from a man so little, or at least so lately known to her.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=The neighbor is eventually able to sell her home despite Homer’s pants-less affronts to propriety and decency and Bart falls deeply and instantly for one of its new inhabitants, a tough but charming and funny tomboy girl named Laura (voiced by Sara Gilbert) with just the right combination of toughness and sweetness, granite and honey.}}