adjective
- belonging or suited to polite society.
- well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.
- affectedly or pretentiously polite, delicate, etc.
adjective
- affectedly proper or refined; excessively polite
- respectable, polite, and well-breda genteel old lady
- appropriate to polite or fashionable societygenteel behaviour
1590s, from Middle French gentil “stylish, fashionable, elegant; nice, graceful, pleasing,” from Old French gentil “high-born, noble” (11c.); a reborrowing of the French word that had early come into English as gentle (q.v.), with French pronunciation and stress preserved to emphasize the distinction. Cf. also jaunty; gentile. OED 2nd ed. reports genteel “is now used, except by the ignorant, only in mockery” (a development it dates from the 1840s).