toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

impropriety
in a sentence

show 103 more with this conextual meaning
  • Roscoe decided there would be no impropriety in letting the girl go as far as the creek.†   (source)
  • Had it been a proper motion hearing, Judge Atlee would have quickly put her in her place, but he wisely ignored the impropriety.†   (source)
  • But Lovell was a practiced flatterer, sometimes to the point of impropriety.†   (source)
  • There can be no impropriety, surely, in receiving your minister and his servant?†   (source)
  • He felt nothing, except an uncomfortable sense of impropriety at finding himself out in the morning streets, dressed in evening clothes.†   (source)
  • If I could ever find a good excuse to get Lawler alone, he would discover a different Gardella girl, one who could easily get beyond not only his age, but also any stupid notion of impropriety.†   (source)
  • The impropriety of the thing, on the general principles of law and reason, is the only obstacle.†   (source)
  • Dignity would not permit such impropriety.†   (source)
  • It was the abode of noise, disorder, and impropriety.   (source)
    impropriety = inappropriate behavior
  • I do not censure her opinions; but there certainly is impropriety in making them public.   (source)
  • "Do not you think," said Fanny, after a little consideration, "that this impropriety is a reflection itself upon Mrs. Crawford, as her niece has been entirely brought up by her?"   (source)
  • Sir Thomas saw all the impropriety of such a scheme among such a party, and at such a time, as strongly as his son had ever supposed he must; he felt it too much, indeed, for many words; and having shaken hands with Edmund, meant to try to lose the disagreeable impression, and forget how much he had been forgotten himself as soon as he could, after the house had been cleared of every object enforcing the remembrance, and restored to its proper state.   (source)
    impropriety = inappropriateness
  • Mrs. Norris was a little confounded and as nearly being silenced as ever she had been in her life; for she was ashamed to confess having never seen any of the impropriety which was so glaring to Sir Thomas, and would not have admitted that her influence was insufficient—that she might have talked in vain.   (source)
  • The voice conveyed an anxious concern over the impropriety of keeping her waiting.†   (source)
  • The door must be kept open at all times because there cannot be even a suspicion, no impropriety behind closed doors; how comical if they only knew what goes on every day during my walk here.†   (source)
  • He told the sympathetic women of Santa Fé and Albuquerque about all the stupid, unnecessary discomforts of his life in Denver, discomforts that amounted to improprieties.†   (source)
  • " ' "The Emptiness o fAll Things" (Sanskrit: funputd, "voidness") refers, on the one hand, to the illusory nature of the phenomenal world and on the other, to the impropriety of attributing such qualities we may know from our experience of the pl, . nornenal world to the imperishable.†   (source)
  • I will pass over the impropriety of your appearing publicly while in mourning, realizing your warm desire to be of assistance to the hospital.†   (source)
  • The word (for "father" was not so much obscene as–with its connotation of something at one remove from the loathsomeness and moral obliquity of child-bearing–merely gross, a scatological rather than a pornographic impropriety); the comically smutty word relieved what had become a quite intolerable tension.†   (source)
  • When Bonnie was four years old, Mammy began to grumble about the impropriety of a girl child riding "a-straddle in front of her pa wid her dress flyin' up.†   (source)
  • The house was one of those flat red houses with hanging flower-baskets of vague impropriety.†   (source)
  • Do you think I am deceived as to the flagrant impropriety of my conduct?†   (source)
  • To speak perfectly frankly, they say you and she have been guilty of impropriety.†   (source)
  • He thought there was no impropriety in his doing so, and he consented.†   (source)
  • Any suspicion of impropriety was to Elizabeth-Jane like a red rag to a bull.†   (source)
  • There will not be the smallest impropriety—Miss Snevellicci, sir, is the very soul of honour.†   (source)
  • Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her father's behaviour as a husband.†   (source)
  • For I solemnly avow that not only have I never so much as hinted at an impropriety in my conversation in the whole of my days; and more than that, I will vouch for the cleanness of my thoughts and the absolute chastity of my life.†   (source)
  • He only said this to be cheery, he did not realize that "white" has no more to do with a colour than "God save the King" with a god, and that it is the height of impropriety to consider what it does connote.†   (source)
  • He only wanted one thing, and that was to get to Nastasia Philipovna's, even at the cost of a certain amount of impropriety.†   (source)
  • Jurgis could be very obstinate when he wanted to, and he was in this case, much to the dismay of the women, who felt that a man-doctor was an impropriety, and that the matter really belonged to them.†   (source)
  • Lucy had said she would join the Vyses--Mrs. Vyse was an acquaintance of her mother, so there was no impropriety in the plan and Miss Bartlett had replied that she was quite used to being abandoned suddenly.†   (source)
  • He was no more confident of the manner in which he ought to conduct himself in the street, or indeed in life generally, than he was in a drawing-room; and he might be seen greeting passers-by, carriages, and anything that occurred with a malicious smile which absolved his subsequent behaviour of all impropriety, since it proved, if it should turn out unsuited to the occasion, that he was well aware of that, and that if he had assumed a smile, the jest was a secret of his own.†   (source)
  • It was before the passing of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, so Mrs. Munt could without impropriety offer to go and keep house at Wickham Place.†   (source)
  • And forthwith the soul of him would flame up and become eloquent—it was almost an impropriety, for all the while his gaze would be fixed upon Marija's face, until she would begin to turn red and lower her eyes.†   (source)
  • The remarks and exclamations of the spectators here were of so irritating a nature that Keller was very near making them a speech on the impropriety of their conduct, but was luckily caught by Burdovsky, in the act of turning to address them, and hurried indoors.†   (source)
  • When Mrs. Micawber has her sea-legs on — an expression in which I hope there is no conventional impropriety — she will give them, I dare say, "Little Tafflin".†   (source)
  • Some dim ideas of imprudence or impropriety in the measure seemed to embarrass him considerably; for he often stopped, as Eliza glided forward, and looked wistfully, first at her and then at the house, and then, as if reassured by reflection, he pattered along after her again.†   (source)
  • If a man lacking in self-confidence remains dumb on a first introduction and betrays a consciousness of the impropriety of such silence and an anxiety to find something to say, the effect is bad.†   (source)
  • The attorney started, as if unconscious of any impropriety, and continued: "So you settled the matter with Natty amicably on the spot, did you?"†   (source)
  • The first question which I am tempted to put to the proprietor of such great impropriety is, Who bolsters you?†   (source)
  • She was now struck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger, and wondered it had escaped her before.†   (source)
  • I sometimes even have doubts of the existence of God," Levin could not help saying, and he was horrified at the impropriety of what he was saying.†   (source)
  • "Gentlemen," said the count, seating himself, "permit me to make a confession which must form my excuse for any improprieties I may commit.†   (source)
  • The facts in the case were these: Until a very little while after I went there, white and black ship-carpenters worked side by side, and no one seemed to see any impropriety in it.†   (source)
  • These thoughts, however, she kept secret; for self-respect and feminine reserve showed her the impropriety of making them the subject of discussion with her present companion.†   (source)
  • The lady modestly hesitated to reply, lest there should be any impropriety in holding an interview with Mr. Bumble, with closed doors.†   (source)
  • Perhaps I had too rashly over-leaped conventionalities; and he, like St. John, saw impropriety in my inconsiderateness.†   (source)
  • The age had not so much refinement, that any sense of impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale from stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution.†   (source)
  • Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever.†   (source)
  • Isabel had been made acquainted with the estimate prevailing under that roof: it represented Mr. Osmond's sister as a lady who had so mismanaged her improprieties that they had ceased to hang together at all—which was at the least what one asked of such matters—and had become the mere floating fragments of a wrecked renown, incommoding social circulation.†   (source)
  • If Mr Clennam has sufficient delicacy to perceive the impropriety of any such attempt, I am bound as a responsible gentleman to—ha—defer to that delicacy on his part.†   (source)
  • On my pointing out the great impropriety of the word, especially in connexion with his parent (for he added sulkily "By her!†   (source)
  • "It is not necessary, I'm sure it is not necessary, that he should leave us," said Ellen, with a haste that implied some little consciousness of the singularity if not of the impropriety of the request.†   (source)
  • Marius said to himself, that he should probably find in it the information which he sought, and that, moreover, the letter being open, it was probable that it could be read without impropriety.†   (source)
  • She tapped nervously, and then thought it doubtful if it were right for a single woman to call upon a bachelor who lived alone, although he was her manager, and she might be supposed to call on business without any real impropriety.†   (source)
  • Her looks grew bolder, her speech more free; she even committed the impropriety of walking out with Monsieur Rodolphe, a cigarette in her mouth, "as if to defy the people."†   (source)
  • Emma, in good spirits too, from the amusement afforded her mind by the expectation of Mr. Frank Churchill, was willing to forget his late improprieties, and be as well satisfied with him as before, and on his making Harriet his very first subject, was ready to listen with most friendly smiles.†   (source)
  • He seemed to think I had committed an impropriety in proposing to accompany him unmarried: as if I had not from the first hoped to find in him a brother, and habitually regarded him as such.†   (source)
  • Even her propriety could not dispute that there was impropriety in the world; but Mrs General's way of getting rid of it was to put it out of sight, and make believe that there was no such thing.†   (source)
  • Shaking her head very emphatically indeed, Mrs Nickleby swept away; and all the evening, in the midst of the merriment and enjoyment that ensued, and in which with that exception she freely participated, conducted herself towards Miss La Creevy in a stately and distant manner, designed to mark her sense of the impropriety of her conduct, and to signify her extreme and cutting disapprobation of the misdemeanour she had so flagrantly committed.†   (source)
  • Indeed, the Artful, presuming upon their close attachment, more than once took occasion to reason gravely with his companion upon these improprieties; all of which remonstrances, Master Bates received in extremely good part; merely requesting his friend to be 'blowed,' or to insert his head in a sack, or replying with some other neatly-turned witticism of a similar kind, the happy application of which, excited considerable admiration in the mind of Mr. Chitling.†   (source)
  • Cursing his temerity, his heart sinking at the thought of finding himself at any moment face to face with the Emperor and being put to shame and arrested in his presence, fully alive now to the impropriety of his conduct and repenting of it, Rostov, with downcast eyes, was making his way out of the house through the brilliant suite when a familiar voice called him and a hand detained him.†   (source)
  • The present crisis, indeed, seemed to be brought on by them; and those misunderstandings might very possibly arise from the impropriety of his conduct.†   (source)
  • Amazed at the alteration of his manner since they last parted, every sentence that he uttered was increasing her embarrassment; and every idea of the impropriety of her being found there recurring to her mind, the few minutes in which they continued were some of the most uncomfortable in her life.†   (source)
  • It is perfectly true, my dear, that I am always glad to see my old pensioner—as such, as such—and that I do—ha—extend as much protection and kindness to the—hum—the bruised reed—I trust I may so call him without impropriety—as in my circumstances, I can.†   (source)
  • Much, much beyond impropriety!†   (source)
  • Even the daintier gentlemen and ladies who had no idea of his secret, and who would have been startled out of more wits than they had, by the monstrous impropriety of his proposing to them 'Come and see what I see!' confessed his attraction.†   (source)
  • Impropriety!†   (source)
  • Every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character, and as she stood before the canvas on which he was represented, and fixed his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before; she remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of expression.†   (source)
  • It soothed, but it could not console her for the contempt which had thus been self-attracted by the rest of her family; and as she considered that Jane's disappointment had in fact been the work of her nearest relations, and reflected how materially the credit of both must be hurt by such impropriety of conduct, she felt depressed beyond anything she had ever known before.†   (source)
  • She represented to him all the improprieties of Lydia's general behaviour, the little advantage she could derive from the friendship of such a woman as Mrs. Forster, and the probability of her being yet more imprudent with such a companion at Brighton, where the temptations must be greater than at home.†   (source)
  • I should hold myself guilty of greater impropriety in accepting a horse from my brother, than from Willoughby.†   (source)
  • Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.†   (source)
  • I have therefore altogether declined to enter regularly upon this defence; yet I am sensible, that there would be some impropriety in abruptly obtruding upon the Public, without a few words of introduction, Poems so materially different from those, upon which general approbation is at present bestowed.†   (source)
  • Holmes said what he could in favor of the project, but my father was clear in the impropriety of it, and at last gave a flat denial to it.†   (source)
  • I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more.†   (source)
  • …to her friend, meanwhile, was entirely thrown away, for Mrs. Allen, not being at all in the habit of conveying any expression herself by a look, was not aware of its being ever intended by anybody else; and Catherine, whose desire of seeing Miss Tilney again could at that moment bear a short delay in favour of a drive, and who thought there could be no impropriety in her going with Mr. Thorpe, as Isabella was going at the same time with James, was therefore obliged to speak plainer.†   (source)
  • If the impertinent remarks of Mrs. Jennings are to be the proof of impropriety in conduct, we are all offending every moment of our lives.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, nothing can be a stronger proof of it, Elinor; for if there had been any real impropriety in what I did, I should have been sensible of it at the time, for we always know when we are acting wrong, and with such a conviction I could have had no pleasure.†   (source)
  • The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one's self as the proposer of any useful project, that might be suppos'd to raise one's reputation in the smallest degree above that of one's neighbors, when one has need of their assistance to accomplish that project.†   (source)
  • Elinor, who had now been for some time reflecting on the propriety or impropriety of speedily hazarding her narration, without feeling at all nearer decision than at first, heard this; and perceiving that as reflection did nothing, resolution must do all, soon found herself leading to the fact.†   (source)
  • But her condemnation of him did not blind her to the impropriety of their having been written at all; and she was silently grieving over the imprudence which had hazarded such unsolicited proofs of tenderness, not warranted by anything preceding, and most severely condemned by the event, when Marianne, perceiving that she had finished the letters, observed to her that they contained nothing but what any one would have written in the same situation.†   (source)
  • Ladies who like distinctive underclothing should, and every welltailored man must, trying to make the gap wider between them by innuendo and give more of a genuine filip to acts of impropriety between the two, she unbuttoned his and then he untied her, mind the pin, whereas savages in the cannibal islands, say, at ninety degrees in the shade not caring a continental.†   (source)
  • But the great authority of Johnson stood against it, and Webster was surely not one to imitate fashionable improprieties.†   (source)
  • Moreover, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is authority for the statement that the /-or/-form was "a fashionable impropriety" in England in 1791.†   (source)
  • "I have heard in this country," he wrote in 1781, "in the senate, at the bar, and from the pulpit, and see daily in dissertations from the press, errors in grammar, improprieties and vulgarisms which hardly any person of the same class in point of rank and literature would have fallen into in Great Britain.†   (source)
  • This was the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and hesitation.†   (source)
  • This lady was now somewhat past the age of thirty, an aera at which, in the opinion of the malicious, the title of old maid may with no impropriety be assumed.†   (source)
  • There are other lights besides those already taken notice of, in which the impropriety of restraints on the discretion of the national legislature will be equally manifest.†   (source)
  • Sancho had not thought it worth while to hobble Rocinante, feeling sure, from what he knew of his staidness and freedom from incontinence, that all the mares in the Cordova pastures would not lead him into an impropriety.†   (source)
  • The fellows of abstinence be temperance, that holdeth the mean in all things; also shame, that escheweth all dishonesty [indecency, impropriety], sufficiency, that seeketh no rich meats nor drinks, nor doth no force of [sets no value on] no outrageous apparelling of meat; measure [moderation] also, that restraineth by reason the unmeasurable appetite of eating; soberness also, that restraineth the outrage of drink; sparing also, that restraineth the delicate ease to sit long at meat,…†   (source)
  • …friend, that a woman is virtuous only in proportion as she is or is not tempted; and that she alone is strong who does not yield to the promises, gifts, tears, and importunities of earnest lovers; for what thanks does a woman deserve for being good if no one urges her to be bad, and what wonder is it that she is reserved and circumspect to whom no opportunity is given of going wrong and who knows she has a husband that will take her life the first time he detects her in an impropriety?†   (source)
  • They soon arrived at the door of this house, or cottage, for it might be called either, without much impropriety.†   (source)
  • In the former, as well as in the latter, the impropriety of the thing, on the general principles of law and reason, is the sole obstacle.†   (source)
  • …to stay no longer than till her horses were ready, and that without either eating or drinking, soon withdrew; when Honour began to take her mistress to task (for indeed she used great freedom), and after a long harangue, in which she reminded her of her intention to go to London, and gave frequent hints of the impropriety of pursuing a young fellow, she at last concluded with this serious exhortation: "For heaven's sake, madam, consider what you are about, and whither you are going."†   (source)
  • Some cases, indeed, have been so flagrant that ALL PARTIES have agreed in the impropriety of the thing.†   (source)
  • This nobleman, who frequently visited Lady Bellaston, had more than once seen Sophia there, since her arrival in town, and had conceived a very great liking to her; which liking, as beauty never looks more amiable than in distress, Sophia had in this fright so encreased, that he might now, without any great impropriety, be said to be actually in love with her.†   (source)
  • The government of England, which has one republican branch only, combined with an hereditary aristocracy and monarchy, has, with equal impropriety, been frequently placed on the list of republics.†   (source)
  • The word "appellate," therefore, will not be understood in the same sense in New England as in New York, which shows the impropriety of a technical interpretation derived from the jurisprudence of any particular State.†   (source)
  • Here is a simple view of the subject, that shows us at once the impropriety of a constitutional interdiction of such establishments, and the necessity of leaving the matter to the discretion and prudence of the legislature.†   (source)
  • But this does not obviate the impropriety of an equal vote between States of the most unequal dimensions and populousness; nor is the inference accurate in point of fact; for we can enumerate nine States which contain less than a majority of the people [4]; and it is constitutionally possible that these nine may give the vote.†   (source)
  • A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)