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

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

Dig beneath that and - barring a trip to Fantasyland in which Spurs win the Champions League - the rest of this season is now a quest for respectability, and for Frank, survival.

From BBC • Jan. 10, 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

I, meanwhile, had been so afraid of floundering, so eager for respectability and a way to pay the bills, that I’d marched myself unthinkingly into the law.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama