Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being mannerly, or civil and respectful in behavior; civility; complaisance.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being mannerly; civility; complaisance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun politeness, good manners

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

mannerly + -ness

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Examples

  • A bon vivant, Mr. Brown was known equally for his mannerliness, his fine wardrobe, his distinctive mustache and his wife — Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.

    Archive 2010-01-31 Bill Crider 2010

  • TUCKER: If some of the slower, showier songs on "Revolution" suggest a hint of self-absorption, the majority of the good ones suggest something much better: a country star who likes to tweak Nashville's notions of mannerliness.

    Miranda Lambert's Classic Country 'Revolution' 2009

  • The boring mannerliness of pseudocommunity is a pretense devoted to fleeing from anything that might cause healthy as well as unhealthy conflict.

    THE DIFFERENT DRUM M. SCOTT PECK 1987

  • The boring mannerliness of pseudocommunity is a pretense devoted to fleeing from anything that might cause healthy as well as unhealthy conflict.

    THE DIFFERENT DRUM M. SCOTT PECK 1987

  • Yet, in all essential points of mannerliness, the family dinner is governed by the same rules that control the formal banquet.

    Etiquette Agnes H. Morton

  • The perplexity of mannerliness will not let him feed, and he is sharp set at an argument when he should cut his meat.

    Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters John Earle

  • The uncompromising directness of these brats, their gross ill - mannerliness, was a matter of which Bob made constant complaint to his mother.

    Once Aboard the Lugger 1925

  • They stood beside her, large, serene people, murmuring graciously and gently inclining their handsome heads as they gave their hands to the guests; and even the youngest and most ebullient of these took on a hushed mannerliness with a closer approach to the bower.

    Alice Adams 1921

  • They stood beside her, large, serene people, murmuring graciously and gently inclining their handsome heads as they gave their hands to the guests; and even the youngest and most ebullient of these took on a hushed mannerliness with a closer approach to the bower.

    Alice Adams Booth Tarkington 1907

  • 'O-- I am glad to hear it,' answered Paula, with a sudden cool mannerliness.

    A Laodicean : a Story of To-day Thomas Hardy 1884

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  • (Hedvig had played the waltzes of her time with the masterly stroke of a man, in the tempo of her blood, rapid and rising—that quick mannerliness of rouch associated with the playing of the Viennese, who, though pricked with the love of rhythm, execute its demands in the duelling manner)

    —Djuna Barnes, Nightwood

    November 18, 2008