IMPROPRIETY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Impropriety

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/ˌɪmprəprˈaɪəti/ Listen

noun

Impropriety n. (pl. improprieties)

The quality of being improper; unfitness or unsuitableness to character, time place, or circumstances; as, impropriety of behavior or manners.

That which is improper; an unsuitable or improper act, or an inaccurate use of language. "But every language has likewise its improprieties and absurdities." "Many gross improprieties, however authorized by practice, ought to be discarded."

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Etymology of 'Impropriety'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Impropriety" Quotes from Famous Books

... as many as possible—or as many as are necessary—of the general characteristics of the Indian, both good and bad—so as to give a fair view of the character, according to the principle intimated above. And I may, perhaps without impropriety, here state, that this may be taken as the key to all the sketches which are to follow. It is quite probable that many examples of each class treated, might be found, who are exceptions to the rules stated, ...

— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel

... Proudie, returning; 'always the same—always equally adverse to the impropriety of conduct of every description;' and she stalked back through the room again, following Mr Slope ...

— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... put it, there is no better way, or at any rate no more thorough way, of throwing young people together. Middle-aged people, too. But the observer receives no impression of moral disorder. High spirits are the rule, and impropriety is the exception. Even in the auditorium at Steeplechase Park, where the cognoscenti assemble to witness the discomfiture of the uninitiated, there is nothing but harmless laughter as the skirts fly up before the unsuspected blast. ...

— Roving East and Roving West • E.V. Lucas

... promise. She uttered no reproof either on her niece's awkward greeting, her abrupt conversation and its tendency to pertness, nor on the loudness of the unlucky game and the impropriety of climbing; nor even on what had greatly annoyed her, the asking for the subscription to the church. There was neither blame nor punishment; but she could not help a certain cold restraint of manner, by which Kate knew that she was greatly displeased, ...

— Countess Kate • Charlotte M. Yonge

... of the Duke is that the Punishment on Sunday was a great impropriety and indiscretion upon the part of Lord Cardigan, but not a Military offence, nor a breach of the Mutiny Act or of the Articles of War; that it called for the censure of the Commander-in-Chief, which censure was pronounced ...

— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843) • Queen Victoria

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