decency

Noun

decency (countable and uncountable, plural decencies)

1. The quality of being decent; propriety.
   • Immodest words admit of no defence, / For want of decency is want of sense.1684, Wentworth Dillon, An Essay on Translated Verse
   • Indeed it is for the moſt part in our ſkill in manners, and in the obſervances of time and place, and of decency in general, which is only to be learned in thoſe ſchools to which Horace recommends us, that what is called Taſte by way of diſtinction, conſiſts; and which is in reality no other than a...1757 (date written), [Edmund Burke], “Introduction. On Taste.”, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 2nd edition, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames]...

   Synonyms:

   integrity, probity, propriety, rectitude, uprightness, angelicality, angelicalness, angelicity, angelicness, godliness

2. That which is proper or becoming.
   • Those thousand decencies, that daily flow / From all her words and actions.1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
   • 'Tis in the Civil Government, as in the Offices of Religion; which, were they ſtript of all the External Decencies of Worſhip, would not make a due Impreſſion on the Minds of thoſe who aſſiſt at them.1706 October 8 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preach’d in the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Sept. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable the...