Sample sentences for DISCREET - verbalworkout.com

2 meanings

(click/touch triangles for details)

1 —as in:
discreet--not showy or gossipy

Definition

trustworthy with secrets and/or inconspicuous or unobtrusive

I leave my phone on silent mode, so it can alert me discreetly when I receive a text message.

discreetly = in a manner that is unlikely to attract attention

Other Uses (with this meaning)

I will be discreet in my investigation.

discreet = careful not to attract attention or cause embarrassment

We are discreet at the office. We never display affection or act as though we date.

discreet = careful not to attract attention

You can count on her to be discreet.

discreet = trustworthy with secrets and/or inconspicuous or unobtrusive

I prefer discreet makeup to heavy makeup.

discreet = unlikely to attract attention

Their servers are discreet yet attentive.

discreet = don't attract attention and/or don't talk with others about what they see and hear

I also told them to engage a staff of servants whom I was prepared to pay very liberally — so long as they keep their mouths shut, I thought — provided that they are discreet, I wrote.
Jean Rhys -- Wide Sargasso Sea

discreet = trustworthy with secrets

Sylvia left the cow to whatever sad fate might await her, and stepped discreetly aside into the bushes, but she was just too late. The enemy had discovered her, and...
Sarah Jewett -- A White Heron

discreetly = inconspicuously (in a manner unlikely to attract attention)

...like you handled that operation you done on my daughter, so discreetly that a hillbilly Heckler is shouting me questions about it wherever I speak?
Tennessee Williams -- A Streetcar Named Desire

discreetly = in a manner that is unlikely to attract attention or cause embarrassment

She kept her voice down and a carefully pleasant expression on her face. "Lieutenant, must you do this now, here and now?"
"Mrs. Whitney, I'll be as discreet as I possibly can."
J.D. Robb -- Glory in Death

discreet = trustworthy with secrets and/or inconspicuous or unobtrusive

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

2 —as in:
discreet--not foolish

Definition

sensible and careful; possibly having good manners

She is a discreet investor.

discreet = sensible and careful

Other Uses (with this meaning)

I need someone who is discreet—not someone as clueless and foolish as her little sister.

discreet = sensible and careful

Well, I have been indiscreet, formerly; but I think I have got over it.
Henry James -- Washington Square

indiscreet = not sensible or careful

(Editor's note: The prefix "in-" in indiscreet means not and reverses the meaning of discreet. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.)

Mr. Raymond chuckled, not at all offended, and I tried to frame a discreet question: "Why do you do like you do?"
Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

discreet = polite (using good judgment)

I consider the blessing of a wife as most justly described in those discreet lines of the poet—'Heaven's last best gift.'
Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park

discreet = sensible

A madness most discreet,
William Shakespeare -- Romeo and Juliet

discreet = sensible

It would have been indiscreet and unprofessional for us to become sexual partners.
J.D. Robb -- Naked in Death

indiscreet = not sensible or careful

(Editor's note: The prefix "in-" in indiscreet means not and reverses the meaning of discreet. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.)

Discreet he was, and of great reverence:
He seemed such, his wordes were so wise,
Geoffrey Chaucer -- The Canterbury Tales
Do you want to be told that you are only unlike other people in being more wise and discreet?
Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park

discreet = sensible

My daughter, whom you have never seen, is nothing to you; and I, possibly, am only an indiscreet and impertinent old man.
Henry James -- Washington Square

(Editor's note: The prefix "in-" in indiscreet means not and reverses the meaning of discreet. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Search for other examples by interest

Interest — Source