Decency

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Decency \De"cen*cy\, n.; pl. {Decencies}. [L. decentia, fr.
     decens: cf. F. d['e]cence. See {Decent}.]
     1. The quality or state of being decent, suitable, or
        becoming, in words or behavior; propriety of form in
        social intercourse, in actions, or in discourse; proper
        formality; becoming ceremony; seemliness; hence, freedom


        from obscenity or indecorum; modesty.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Observances of time, place, and of decency in
              general.                              --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Immodest words admit of no defense,
              For want of decency is want of sense. --Roscommon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That which is proper or becoming.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The external decencies of worship.    --Atterbury.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Those thousand decencies, that daily flow
              From all her words and actions.       --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  decency
       n 1: the quality of conforming to standards of propriety and
            morality [ant: {indecency}]
       2: the quality of being polite and respectable

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  123 Moby Thesaurus words for "decency":
     accommodatingness, advantage, advantageousness, advisability,
     affability, agreeableness, amiability, appropriateness,
     assured probity, becomingness, beneficialness, benevolence,
     benignity, bienseance, blamelessness, ceremoniousness, character,
     civility, cleanness, complaisance, compliance, conformity,
     convenance, convenience, convention, conventional usage,
     conventionalism, conventionality, correctitude, correctness,
     custom, decencies, decorousness, decorum, delicacy, desirability,
     dignity, elegance, erectness, estimableness, etiquette, expedience,
     expediency, fairness, feasibility, felicity, fitness, fittingness,
     form, formality, fruitfulness, generousness, genteelness,
     gentility, good character, good form, goodness, graciosity,
     graciousness, happiness, high ideals, high principles,
     high-mindedness, honesty, honor, honorableness, immaculacy,
     integrity, irreproachability, irreproachableness, justice,
     justness, kindliness, kindness, meetness, modesty,
     moral excellence, moral strength, niceness, nobility, normality,
     normativeness, obligingness, opportuneness, percentage,
     politicness, principles, probity, profit, profitability,
     properness, proprieties, propriety, prudence, pudency, pudicity,
     pureness, purity, rectitude, reputability, respectability,
     righteousness, rightness, seasonableness, seemliness, shame,
     social convention, social usage, stainlessness, suitability,
     timeliness, unimpeachability, unimpeachableness, unspottedness,
     uprightness, upstandingness, urbanity, usefulness, virtue,
     virtuousness, wisdom, worthiness, worthwhileness