Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Noble birth or condition.
- noun The members of the nobility, especially the French nobility.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Noble birth or condition; nobility; greatness; nobleness.
- noun The nobility; persons of noble rank collectively; specifically, same as
nobility , 3 .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The quality of being
noble ;nobleness . - noun The
nobility ;peerage .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the state of being of noble birth
- noun members of the nobility (especially of the French nobility)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Miüsov, my relation, prefers to have _plus de noblesse que de sincérité_ in his words, but I prefer in mine _plus de sincérité que de noblesse_, and — damn the _noblesse_!
The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1851
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The drawing-room, which was called the salle de compagnie, was used only on ceremonious occasions, Easter, the bishop's visit, or when the noblesse from the surrounding country called, and the proudest among them were proud to do so.
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There is an antiquated concept called noblesse oblige.
Steve Malkenson: The New York Yankees And Christian Lopez: Noblesse Oblige Is Dead Steve Malkenson 2011
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When I first joined I learned from a senior the [French] phrase noblesse oblige, which I understood to mean not shirking the responsibilities of your position.
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I saw a few people belonging to the Court, many others whose features were unknown to me, and a few who figured technically without right among what was called the noblesse, but whose self-devotion ennobled them at once.
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My father was of a wealthy bourgeois family of Landerneau, and it must have been his happy character and love of sport rather than his wealth – he was master of hounds and always kept the pack – that made him popular in Quimper, for the gulf between the bourgeoisie and the noblesse was almost impassable.
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He takes us to a tea party attended by "the higher classes or noblesse, that is to say such as kept their own cows and drove their own wagons," where we can see the damsels knitting their own woolen stockings and the vrouws serving big apple pies, bushels of doughnuts, and pouring tea out of a fat Delft teapot.
History of American Literature Reuben Post Halleck 1897
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The classes in which the national spirit of Poland lived were the so-called noblesse, numbering hundreds of thousands, the town populations, and the priesthood.
A History of Modern Europe, 1792-1878 Charles Alan Fyffe 1868
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There is an antiquated concept called noblesse oblige.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Steve Malkenson 2011
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The French have witnessed a debate characterized by a noblesse often lacking on the left.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Matt Browne 2011
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