PROPRIETY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Propriety

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/prəprˈaɪəti/ Listen

noun

Propriety n. (pl. proprieties)

Individual right to hold property; ownership by personal title; property. (Obs.) "Onles this propriety be exiled." "So are the proprieties of a wife to be disposed of by her lord, and yet all are for her provisions, it being a part of his need to refresh and supply hers."

That which is proper or peculiar; an inherent property or quality; peculiarity. (Obs.) "We find no mention hereof in ancient zoographers,... who seldom forget proprieties of such a nature."

The quality or state of being proper; suitableness to an acknowledged or correct standard or rule; consonance with established principles, rules, or customs; fitness; appropriateness; as, propriety of behavior, language, manners, etc. "The rule of propriety,"

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Etymology of 'Propriety'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Propriety" Quotes from Famous Books

... [Footnote 3: Elixir of propriety, of vitriol, stomach essence, tincture of castor, bezoartic tincture, tincture of euphorbia. For the wonderful properties of the bezoar-stone (really a concretion found in the intestines of the wild goat, or, sometimes, a coprolite) and its derivatives, see Eggleston, Transit ...

— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... saints repose are opaque and solid; cherubs in countless multitudes, a swarm of merry children, crawl about upon these feather-beds of vapour, creep between the legs of the apostles, and play at bopeep behind their shoulders. There is no propriety in their appearance there. They take no interest in the beatific vision. They play no part in the celestial symphony; nor are they capable of more than merely infantine enjoyment. Correggio has sprinkled ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... herself. But for the fact that the name of Vanderpoel represented wealth so enormous as to amount to a sort of rank in itself, Bettina would not have been received. The proprietress of the institution had gravely disquieting doubts of the propriety of America. Her pupils were not accustomed to freedom of opinions and customs. An American child might either consciously or unconsciously introduce them. As this must be guarded against, Betty's first few months at the school were not agreeable ...

— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... had given him little opportunity. His own voice pleased the lay-preacher, and he had orated on every subject from politics to street-paving, giving his companion little chance for anything but monosyllabic comments. But finally Will's chance came. Abe had abruptly questioned the propriety of permitting marriage in their village, where the burden of keeping the offspring of the union was likely to fall upon the public shoulders. Will plunged into the midst of the man's oratory, and would ...

— The One-Way Trail - A story of the cattle country • Ridgwell Cullum

... for nature; with her art is only beautiful as an echo or shadow of it. She is praising the hansom cab by theme and theory, but her soul is still a child by the sea, picking up shells. She can never be utterly of the town, as a man can; indeed, do we not speak (with sacred propriety) of 'a man about town'? Who ever spoke of a woman about town? However much, physically, 'about town' a woman may be, she still models herself on nature; she tries to carry nature with her; she bids grasses to grow on her head, and furry beasts to bite her about ...

— The Napoleon of Notting Hill • Gilbert K. Chesterton

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