| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | shy and strict in behavior |
| Synonyms: | Victorian, affected, artificial, austere, bigoted, conventional, demure, fastidious, finicky*, genteel, illiberal, mincing, narrow, narrow-minded, offish, overexact, overmodest, overnice, precise, pretentious, priggish, prim, prissy, proper, puritanical, rigid, rigorous, scrupulous, severe, simpering, square, squeamish, starchy, stern, stiff*, stilted, straitlaced, stuffy, uptight* |
| Notes: | prudent means careful and sensible or marked by sound judgment, while prudish means excessively proper or modest in speech, conduct or dress |
| Antonyms: | bold, brave, extroverted, outgoing |
| Main Entry: | coy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very modest |
| Synonyms: | backward, bashful, blushing, coquettish, demure, diffident, evasive, flirtatious, humble, kittenish, overmodest, prudish, rabbity, reserved, retiring, self-effacing, shrinking, shy, skittish, timid, unassertive |
| Antonyms: | aggressive, forward, immodest, impudent, unshy |
| Main Entry: | delicate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fussy, discriminating |
| Synonyms: | alert, careful, critical, dainty, fastidious, finical, finicking, finicky, gentle, nice, particular, persnickety, prudish, pure, refined, scrupulous, sensitive, squeamish, thin-skinned |
| Antonyms: | imprecise, indelicate, indiscriminating, uncritical |
| Main Entry: | demure |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | reserved, affected |
| Synonyms: | backward, bashful, blushing, close, coy, decorous, diffident, earnest, humble, modest, nice, prim, prissy, proper, prudish, reticent, retiring, sedate, serious, shy, silent, skittish, sober, solemn, staid, strait-laced, timid, unassertive, unassuming, unassured |
| Notes: | demur is the verb 'to object or voice opposition' while demure is the adjective meaning 'modest, shy' |
| Antonyms: | aggressive, bold, extroverted, outgoing, shameless, strong |
| Main Entry: | genteel |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | sophisticated, cultured |
| Synonyms: | affected, aristocratic, artificial, chivalrous, civil, confined, courteous, courtly, cultivated, distingué, elegant, fashionable, formal, graceful, hollow, intolerant, la-di-da, mannerly, noble, ostentatious, polished, polite, pompous, precious, pretentious, priggish, prim, prissy, prudish, refined, respectable, straitlaced, stuffy, stylish, urbane, well-behaved, well-bred, well-mannered |
| Antonyms: | boorish, callous, rough, rude, rugged, uncultured, unrefined, unsophisticated |
| Main Entry: | goody-goody |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | straight-laced |
| Synonyms: | God-fearing, PC, Puritan, Victorian, goody two-shoes, holier-than-thou, moral, nice, pious, politically correct, priggish, prissy, prudish, self-righteous, unctuous, virtuous |
| Main Entry: | prim |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | particular, fussy |
| Synonyms: | Victorian, blue-nose, ceremonial, ceremonious, choosy, cleanly, conventional, correct, dapper*, decorous, demure, fastidious, formal, genteel, good, goody-goody, nice, nit-picking, orderly, overmodest, polite, precise, priggish, prissy, proper, prudish, puritanical, rigid, shipshape, spic-and-span, spruce, stickling, stiff, straight, strait-laced, stuffy, tidy, uncluttered, upright, well-groomed, wooden |
| Antonyms: | informal, rumpled |
| Main Entry: | prissy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | particular and fussy |
| Synonyms: | Victorian, epicene, fastidious, finicky, genteel, goody-goody, goody-two-shoes, overnice, pansified, persnickety, picky, precious, prim, prim and proper, prudish, puritanical, sissified, sissy, squeamish, stickling, strait-laced, stuffy, tight-laced |
| Antonyms: | informal, unconcerned |
| Main Entry: | proper |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | mannerly, decent |
| Synonyms: | becoming, befitting, by the book, by the numbers, comely, comme il faut, conforming, correct, de rigueur, decorous, demure, genteel, in line, kosher*, moral, nice, polite, precise, priggish, prim, prissy, prudish, punctilious, puritanical, refined, respectable, right, seemly, solid, square*, stone, straight*, strait-laced, stuffy |
| Antonyms: | crass, crude, misbehaving, objectionable |