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

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

Ms. Cheever began to understand that his stories came at least partly from the tension between his private feelings of shame and the effort to maintain his respectability as a literary grandee and paterfamilias.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025

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

That is to say, my mother responded willfully to the respectability heaped upon her.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover