How to Use decorous in a Sentence
decorous
adjective-
Yates draws a decorous curtain around the rest of the scene.
—S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023
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Among the criers were some of the least decorous people in the country.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 4 Dec. 2023
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The courtroom scenes in Part 3 are decorous but then out of control.
—Margaret Lyons, New York Times, 28 June 2018
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In a leather half-booth, in the emptiest bar in the city, there is no impetus to be decorous.
—John Cotter, New York Times, 20 June 2023
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Tiki torches held aloft, Unite the Right exposed cracks in the town’s decorous façade.
—Hamilton Cain, BostonGlobe.com, 13 July 2023
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The year before, things had been slightly less decorous.
—Vivian Yee, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2018
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Which is not to say Chiapponi is hung up on decorous good taste.
—Kareem Rashed, Robb Report, 27 Mar. 2021
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State of Union was about as decorous as a junior high school cafeteria.
—Ian Fisher, Bloomberg.com, 11 Feb. 2023
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Shawn was formal and decorous, in contrast to Ross’s bluster.
—Susan Morrison, The New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2021
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The proceedings, which took place a few blocks away, after lunch, were more decorous but more alarming.
—David Rohde, The New Yorker, 10 Dec. 2019
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In fact, the shapes their bodies make are to the decorous postures of adults as children’s halting speech is to adult fluency.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2019
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Beside him, his wife wore a powder blue Ralph Lauren suit and matching gloves, her hair in a decorous twist.
—New York Times, 16 Jan. 2021
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Both are covered with moss and studded with Phalaenopsis in a decorous but eye-catching range of whites and pinks.
—Will Heinrich, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2023
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Nowhere did spontaneity seem ready to burst through the surfaces of the decorous and promotional cheer.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2023
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This year’s contests, by contrast, are a more decorous affair.
—oregonlive, 9 May 2023
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The ever-decorous Barnes, reached by phone Wednesday, said that she was honored to be recognized.
—Bill Turque, kansascity, 31 May 2018
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The people in this brief clip, many of them children – the boys horsing around, the girls more decorous in their patterned dresses – are like phantoms reaching out to us across the vales of time.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Sep. 2022
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Over the millennia, the flute has come to be seen as delicate, decorous, ethereal.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 27 Dec. 2021
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But if that wasn’t her reaction to an A-lister throwing hands at the most performatively decorous event of the year, then what caused the face-crack?
—Vulture, 28 Mar. 2022
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The job that Nancy Pelosi is leaving is called Speaker of the House, but her interpretation of the role has never had much to do with decorous speech.
—The New Yorker, 23 Nov. 2022
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John Harnage danced the stand-alone role of the knight-like young man who remains apart from his squire-like companions, whose dashing moves frame his more decorous presence.
—Robert Greskovic, WSJ, 30 Mar. 2022
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The expression on the face of the resident first cellist, who had every right to expect the gig, is a study in decorous disappointment.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2022
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The vote, shown on national television, was a decorous, solemn affair.
—Krishan Francis, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 July 2022
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Mark Kelly Politicians have perfectly legal and decorous ways to cash in.
—Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 30 June 2023
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Phipps was responsible for dealing with Beckham’s mountains of fan mail during his tenure at the club — not all of it decorous.
—K.j. Yossman, Variety, 4 Oct. 2023
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That ludicrously crimson, aromatic oil shows up in the final dish twofold: first, in the dumpling filling itself, then in a decorous drizzle atop the soup.
—Eric Kim, New York Times, 28 Dec. 2022
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That piece opens with a decorous six-note gesture, which leads into an initial thematic statement.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2022
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And starting in 1565, after years of criticism that deemed the naked figures of the Last Judgment obscene, decorous draperies were painted over their genitals.
—New York Times, 5 Apr. 2021
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When tabloid-style news of this event broke in the usually decorous Financial Times on Wednesday, the recoil was immediate.
—The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 25 Jan. 2018
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But for one moment, that all can perhaps be set aside in order to take in an exquisite and decorous pageant inimitably crafted by one of the planet’s oldest monarchies.
—Hannah Yasharoff, USA TODAY, 6 May 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'decorous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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