English edit

Etymology edit

respect +‎ -able

Pronunciation edit

  • (US) IPA(key): [ɹɪ.ˈspɛk.tə.bl̩]
  • (file)

Adjective edit

respectable (comparative more respectable, superlative most respectable)

  1. Deserving respect.
    His accomplishments, morals, loyalty, and stature make him a respectable person.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate [], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, [], →OCLC:
      In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
  2. Decent; satisfactory.
    Turn up to the interview wearing something respectable.  She plays a respectable game of chess.  He got a respectable B+ on his last exam.
  3. Moderately well-to-do.

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Noun edit

respectable (plural respectables)

  1. A person who is respectable.
    • 1872, Thomas Cooper, The Life of Thomas Cooper, page 221:
      They forced their way into the meetings called by the respectables; and the respectables disappeared. It was of their own respectable good pleasure that they withdrew.
    • 2014, Mitchell Duneier, Philip Kasinitz, Alexandra Murphy, The Urban Ethnography Reader, page 38:
      The “respectables”, then, impute to themselves an absence of such character blemishes, or stated in more positive terms, an allegiance to American mainstream morality.

See also edit

Catalan edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

respectable m or f (masculine and feminine plural respectables)

  1. respectable

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French edit

Etymology edit

From respect +‎ -able.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

respectable (plural respectables)

  1. respectable

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Further reading edit

Galician edit

Alternative forms edit

Adjective edit

respectable m or f (plural respectables)

  1. respectable

Derived terms edit

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Further reading edit