polite

Music of the margins — which before neoperreo was punk rock and hip-hop — had been framed in opposition to polite society.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Despite the polite crowd at my screening, I wondered if questionable theater etiquette came into play elsewhere.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026

As a member of the Moneyist Facebook Group says, “My momma taught me to be polite, but these people are usually vultures. Just hang up, say nothing.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

A polite middle-aged man raised my hood, duct-taped the hose, and followed me as I limped to a service station.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

"Well," said Sam, looking back at the playground as they went through the door, "I might go down the giraffe slide just one time to be polite."

From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry

An 18-year-old woman said ghosting was “a little bit politer way to reject someone than to directly say, ‘I do not want to chat with you.’

From Washington Post ● Jul. 25, 2022

She makes unreasonable public demands, he apologizes for her, and then he not-so-subtly reiterates those demands in a slightly politer tone.

From Slate ● May 9, 2019

They wield illusory credits and debits, pecuniary symbols of wealth, all the better to club their opponents into a politer businesslike submission.

From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2019

She admires various classical and modern dancers and choreographers and works, but her own dancers enact a brash and pitiless system of movement that disdains and subverts politer forms.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 22, 2015

‘Don’t believe what strangers say of themselves either! I am not a fighter. But it would be politer in any case for the challenger to say who he is.’

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

There are some wonderful communicators in this Scotland team but, in the politest sense, they're fed up communicating and are just desperate to start delivering.

From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026

“The politest way is to enlist the aid of the flight attendants,” says Jodi RR Smith, an etiquette consultant.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2024

When confronted about these statements by a reporter, McCain defended the use of the term, saying it was the politest term he could think of.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2021

Then, of course, there is my politest critic.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 2, 2019

They owed to him their two or three politest puzzles; and the joy and exultation with which at last he recalled, and rather sentimentally recited, that well-known charade,

From "Emma" by Jane Austen