Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Polite, refined, and often elegant in manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or belonging to a city or town; urban.
  • Civil; courteous; polite; usually, in a stronger sense, very polite; suave; elegant or refined: as, a man of urbane manners.
  • Synonyms Civil, Courteous, etc. See polite.

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

  • adjective Courteous in manners; polite; refined; elegant.

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

  • adjective of a man Courteous, polite, refined, and suave.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin urbānus, of a city; see urban.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Existing since the sixteenth century in the sense of “appropriate to a city”: from French urbain or from Latin urbanus (from urbs, “city”).

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Examples

  • Carrie Vaughn just created the term urbane fantasy, I love it.

    Urbane Fantasy Anyone? gailcarriger 2009

  • Carrie Vaughn just created the term urbane fantasy, I love it.

    Urbane Fantasy Anyone? gailcarriger 2009

  • A Mini is a car that is bandy, diminutive and urbane, which is to say, good on gas and easy to park.

    What Part of 'Mini' Did You Not Grasp, BMW? Dan Neil 2011

  • Bausch never succumbs to trippy New Age stuff that this set might suggest, however, and instead often engages her players in urbane games with tables and chairs and other hallmarks of daily life incongruous to the deep blue sea.

    Archive 2007-11-01 2007

  • Bausch never succumbs to trippy New Age stuff that this set might suggest, however, and instead often engages her players in urbane games with tables and chairs and other hallmarks of daily life incongruous to the deep blue sea.

    Pina's Sense of Snow 2007

  • Aziz became known as the urbane and kindly public face of Saddam's regime in the lead-up to the first Gulf War in 1991 and the allied invasion of 2003.

    canada.com Top Stories 2010

  • Aziz became known as the urbane and kindly public face of Saddam's regime in the lead-up to the first Gulf War in 1991 and the allied invasion of 2003.

    canada.com Top Stories 2010

  • Inevitably, it's somewhere between the two, and this year the emphasis is on what you'd have to call urbane, slightly retro funk-pop the very good Metronomy; headliners Two Door Cinema Club.

    This week's new live music 2012

  • Those who have met him recall his urbane charm, vigorous handshakes, jokes and contagious laughter, but also his short temper, especially towards "arrogant" journalists.

    Laurent Gbagbo: Democratic martyr turned dictator | David Smith 2010

  • The Parasol Protectorate series totally fits the idea of urbane fantasy.

    Urbane Fantasy Anyone? gailcarriger 2009

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