well-bred
5
5.8
- adjective
- /ˌwɛlˈbrɛd/
- She was raised by well-bred parents who taught her good manners.
- a well-bred lady
- a well-bred woman
- a well-bred young lady
Examples
-
Behave in a well-bred manner, always with patience and good cheer.
Academic text (1993) -
A clever and well-bred woman, your wife.
-
A really well-bred person would not have repeated that.
-
Realizing that well-bred people sit, stand, and act in a certain manner.
Academic text (1995) -
No, a well-bred person wouldn't have repeated that.
-
And of course you're much too well bred to enquire about my business.
-
Like any well-bred boy of fourteen or fifteen, he would bow and thank me courteously.
Blog text (12) -
Was it because I was moody and quiet, not cheerful and optimistic like a well-bred Southern girl?
Fiction book (2000) -
Here she gave a charming laugh, modulated and well-bred. I've thought it's better not to say too much to him right now.
Fiction book (1990) -
I thought of him and his devoted wife and his well-bred children as a typical middle-class family to whom nothing adventurous or unconventional could possibly happen.
Synonyms
20
2.8
Polite and calm around other people
12
2.9
Polite and respectful to other people
1
9.1
A person who comes from a rich or upper-class family
1
7.4
A person from a noble or wealthy family with polite, refined manners
Antonyms
How Polite
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Well-bred comes from well ('good') and bred, from breed, which means 'to raise' or 'bring up'. So a person or animal that is well-bred was 'raised well', and that is why the word means polite and having good manners.