| Main Entry: | demure |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | reserved, affected |
Synonyms: |
backward, bashful, blushing, close, coy, decorous, diffident, earnest, humble, modest, nice, prim, prissy, proper, prudish, reticent, retiring, sedate, serious, shy, silent, skittish, sober, solemn, staid, strait-laced, timid, unassertive, unassuming, unassured |
| Notes: | demur is the verb 'to object or voice opposition' while demure is the adjective meaning 'modest, shy' |
Antonyms: |
aggressive, bold, extroverted, outgoing, shameless, strong |
| Main Entry: | narrow-minded |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | biased, intolerant |
Synonyms: |
bigoted, conservative, conventional, hidebound, illiberal, insular, narrow, opinionated, parochial, petty, prejudiced, provincial, reactionary, short-sighted, small-minded, strait-laced, unenlarged |
Antonyms: |
broad-minded, liberal, tolerant, unbiased |
| Main Entry: | prim |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | particular, fussy |
Synonyms: |
Victorian, blue-nose, ceremonial, ceremonious, choosy, cleanly, conventional, correct, dapper*, decorous, demure, fastidious, formal, genteel, good, goody-goody, nice, nit-picking, orderly, overmodest, polite, precise, priggish, prissy, proper, prudish, puritanical, rigid, shipshape, spic-and-span, spruce, stickling, stiff, straight, strait-laced, stuffy, tidy, uncluttered, upright, well-groomed, wooden |
Antonyms: |
informal, rumpled |
| Main Entry: | prissy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | particular and fussy |
Synonyms: |
Victorian, epicene, fastidious, finicky, genteel, goody-goody, goody-two-shoes, overnice, pansified, persnickety, picky, precious, prim, prim and proper, prudish, puritanical, sissified, sissy, squeamish, stickling, strait-laced, stuffy, tight-laced |
Antonyms: |
informal, unconcerned |
| Main Entry: | proper |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | mannerly, decent |
Synonyms: |
becoming, befitting, by the book, by the numbers, comely, comme il faut, conforming, correct, de rigueur, decorous, demure, genteel, in line, kosher*, moral, nice, polite, precise, priggish, prim, prissy, prudish, punctilious, puritanical, refined, respectable, right, seemly, solid, square*, stone, straight*, strait-laced, stuffy |
Antonyms: |
crass, crude, misbehaving, objectionable |
| Main Entry: | rigid |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | stiff, strict, severe |
Synonyms: |
adamant, adamantine, austere, bullheaded, changeless, chiseled, dead set, definite, determined, exact, firm, fixed, hard, hard-line, harsh, incompliant, inelastic, inexorable, inflexible, intransigent, invariable, locked in, obdurate, rigorous, set, set in stone, single-minded, solid, static, stern, strait-laced, stringent, tough nut to crack, unalterable, unbending, unbreakable, unchanging, uncompromising, undeviating, unmoving, unpermissive, unrelenting, unyielding |
Antonyms: |
bending, flexible, lenient, limber, pliable, pliant, soft, yielding |
| Main Entry: | severe |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | uncompromising, stern |
Synonyms: |
astringent, austere, biting, caustic, close, cold, cruel, cutting, disapproving, dour, earnest, firm, flinty, forbidding, grave, grim, hard, hard-nosed, harsh, inconsiderate, inexorable, inflexible, iron-handed, obdurate, oppressive, peremptory, pitiless, relentless, resolute, resolved, rigid, satirical, scathing, serious, sober, stern, stiff*, strait-laced, strict, tight-lipped, unalterable, unbending, unchanging, unfeeling, unrelenting, unsmiling, unsparing |
Antonyms: |
amenable, compromising, easy-going, friendly, willing |
| Main Entry: | square |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | old-fashioned, conventional |
Synonyms: |
behind the times, bourgeois, button-down, conservative, dated, orthodox, out-of-date, straight*, strait-laced, stuffy |
Antonyms: |
current, in vogue, new, popular, stylish |
| Main Entry: | squeamish |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | nauseated; finicky |
Synonyms: |
annoyed, captious, delicate, disgusted, dizzy, exacting, fastidious, fussy, hypercritical, mincing, particular, prim, prudish, puritanical, qualmish, queasy, queer, scrupulous, shaky, sick, sick to one's stomach, sickly, strait-laced, unsettled, upset, vertiginous |
Antonyms: |
ready, unpicky, willing |
| Main Entry: | starchy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | formal, stiff |
Synonyms: |
ceremonious, conventional, inflexible, mannered, prim, reserved, rigid, starched, stilted, strait-laced, strict, stuffy |