misbecoming

Flights borrow no Graces from Detraction; you never speak a misbecoming Word, nor do an ill-natur'd Action, tho ''tis always in your Power.

Zadig Or, The Book of Fate 1694-1778 Voltaire 1736

Woman, I think it as misbecoming in your Sex, as Effeminacy in ours; and a learned Lady is as ridiculous as a spinning Hercules.

Exilius 2008

Luckily, he recollected the remorse which he had felt at having given way to the vivacity of his temper upon a similar occasion; and, closing his lips, imprisoned, until it died on his tongue, a reproach so misbecoming the presence of majesty.

The Abbot 2008

For every one has felt, that when a paroxysm of laughter has seized him at a misbecoming time and place, the efforts which he made to suppress it, nay, the very sense of the impropriety of giving way to it, tend only to augment and prolong the irresistible impulse.

The Abbot 2008

Parents, much less young Gentlemen; that being an Irregularity misbecoming my Sex and Station, and the Character of a dutiful Daughter: This I desir'd her to tell him, with my Service; which Answer I utter'd with a little Sharpness, that the Woman could not but see her Errand was disobliging, as it was, and ought to be; such a Message looking more like

A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies 2008

On the head of good-breeding, he observes, that, “there are two sorts of ill-breeding; the one a sheepish bashfulness, and the other a misbecoming negligence and disrespect in our carriage; both which,” says he, “are avoided by duly observing this one rule, not to think meanly of ourselves, and not to think meanly of others.”

Pamela 2006

For to have apologized to every one had been too servile and misbecoming the dignity of his person; whereas equally to have neglected every one had been an act of insolence and imprudence.

Essays and Miscellanies 2004

'Tis meet and necessary that we take a smaller house and set the servants at large, sith they be of no value but to make delay, and trouble one with offices that harass the spirit and shame the soul, they misbecoming any but a doll, that hath nor brains nor hands to help itself withal.

Vietnam: Solutions McCarthy, Mary 1967

Is there any thing misbecoming or ungentle about me?

The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter 20-66 Petronius Arbiter

Captiousness is another fault opposite to civility; not only because it often produces misbecoming and provoking expressions and carriage; but because it is a tacit accusation and reproach of some incivility taken notice of in those whom we are angry with.

Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Sections 141-150 1909