respectability

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“It throws an air of respectability about five-dollar dealings that are sheer gambling,” the Inquirer wrote Sept. 25, 1878.

From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026

One victim's family says Bush operated behind a veneer of respectability.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

There was something else that academics offered Epstein beyond a veneer of respectability: access.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

Williamson chose this route for “Unconventional” because he wanted to make an unabashedly queer relationship show “written without respectability politics in mind, so I’d need to find a different pathway.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2025

Them she bent toward respectability, and in so doing taught them fear: fear of being clumsy, fear of being like their father, fear of not being loved by God, fear of madness like Cholly’s mother’s.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison