Sample sentences for TURPITUDE

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Definition

evilness or moral depravity

If the proportion of the civilian population killed by the regime is the standard for judging the turpitude of the government, then the Communist Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, probably deserves first prize, putting to death two million out of its seven million people.
Michael Mandelbaum -- The Ideas That Conquered the World

Then, with a little cold sigh, he seemed to signify that he regretfully surrendered the late marquis to the penalty of his turpitude.
Henry James -- The American
As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.
Robert Louis Stevenson -- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
O Antony, Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid My better service, when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold!
William Shakespeare -- Antony and Cleopatra
They were not his misdeeds, his turpitudes; she accused him of nothing—that is but of one thing, which was NOT a crime.
Henry James -- The Portrait of a Lady - Volumes 1 & 2
His relations with Mrs Basil had not seemed to him to imply moral turpitude of a gross kind.
Ford Madox Ford -- The Good Soldier
There are instances of bravery ignored and obstinate, which defend themselves step by step in that fatal onslaught of necessities and turpitudes.
Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
They were not his misdeeds, his turpitudes; she accused him of nothing—that is but of one thing, which was NOT a crime.
Henry James -- The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 2
There was no remorse or horror at the turpitude of the act, but only the incredulity which I have referred to.
Robert Penn Warren -- All the King's Men
There was no turpitude which was not sacred on that day.
Victor Hugo -- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
This epoch—these later years—took unto themselves a sudden elevation in turpitude, whose origin alone it is my present purpose to assign.
Edgar Allan Poe -- William Wilson
The people can never penetrate into the perplexing labyrinth of court intrigue, and it will always have difficulty in detecting the turpitude which lurks under elegant manners, refined tastes, and graceful language.
Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 1
It's an ornate ironwork number, but harried White Columns residents don't have time to sit idling at the Burbclave entrance watching the gate slowly roll aside in Old South majestic turpitude, so it's mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun.
Neal Stephenson -- Snow Crash
Drawn by the fascination of the horror of pain and, from within, impelled by that habit of cooperation, that desire for unanimity and atonement, which their conditioning had so ineradicably implanted in them, they began to mime the frenzy of his gestures, striking at one another as the Savage struck at his own rebellious flesh, or at that plump incarnation of turpitude writhing in the heather at his feet.
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World
Even he took a dim view of me, not for my moral turpitude but for my clumsiness.
Margaret Atwood -- The Blind Assassin
They are therefore led (and not unfrequently their conjecture is a correct one) to impute his success mainly to some one of his defects; and an odious mixture is thus formed of the ideas of turpitude and power, unworthiness and success, utility and dishonor.
Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 1
Traitors showed themselves unbuttoned; men who had gone over to the enemy on the eve of battle made no secret of their recompense, and strutted immodestly in the light of day, in the cynicism of riches and dignities; deserters from Ligny and Quatre-Bras, in the brazenness of their well-paid turpitude, exhibited their devotion to the monarchy in the most barefaced manner.
Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
It certainly is sad that turpitude heaped up should give a sum total of gayety, that by piling ignominy upon opprobrium the people should be enticed, that the system of spying, and serving as caryatids to prostitution should amuse the rabble when it confronts them, that the crowd loves to behold that monstrous living pile of tinsel rags, half dung, half light, roll by on four wheels howling and laughing, that they should clap their hands at this glory composed of all shames, that there...
Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
Or do you are fond better what belongs they moderns pleasure turpitude of old mans?
James Joyce -- Ulysses

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turpitude