1Behavior that conforms to accepted standards of morality or respectability.

她有前来坦白的气度。

1. 1.1 Modesty and propriety.
   a loose dress, rather too low-cut for decency

   宽松的衣服，领口低得不得体。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Police have the power to take action against offenders for outraging public decency or indecent exposure.
   • For this they were hauled up in a New York court on either obscenity or public decency charges.
   • A jury of six men and six women took just an hour to decide that he was innocent of a charge of committing an act outraging public decency.
   • She was with a man who seemed as oblivious to public decency as she was, kissing and fondling her as they walked.
   • There are a range of poo jokes we are going to avoid for the sake of decency.
   • Police have already vowed to prosecute people for outraging public decency.
   • Obscenity had previously been understood in terms of prevailing standards of decency.
   • She has no hang-ups about working on the margins of decency, however.
   • Girls from respectable families follow a clear code of conduct adhering to propriety and decency.
   • It is a vision of horror that, while it might offend our sense of taste and decency, can ultimately only evoke our compassion.
   • The press is overstepping in every direction the obvious bounds of propriety and of decency.
   • It seems to be the trend to rebel against all forms of tidiness, etiquette and decency.
   • In fact the art of draping a patient for warmth and decency and a professional barrier seem to be no more.
   • What harm is there in trying to live a good life and to maintain public decency?
   • The Sixties completely wiped away the notion that virginity was essential to respectability and decency.
   • The participation of girls and young women in gymnastic exhibitions was judged as contrary to public decency.
   • Decadence remains an acquired taste, whereas decency is as fundamental as common sense.
   • Suddenly I was sick of being cold and wet, and I just didn't care enough to bother with decency.
   • She had the decency to cover herself with a brightly coloured, beaded shawl but it hardly helped.
   • Police are now investigating an alleged offence of outraging public decency.
2. 1.2decencies The requirements of accepted or respectable behavior.
   礼仪；行为准则
   an appeal to common decencies

   对公共礼仪的诉求。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • I hope though I speak on behalf of many UK citizens here when I ask that if British universities are not prepared to represent and defend the basic decencies of democratic society, then who on earth is?
   • These include the common moral decencies of integrity, trustworthiness, benevolence, and fairness.
   • Many dirt-poor electors, who might think the Democrats offer them some short-term material gain, vote Republican in defence of traditional decencies.
   • That's the dreadful part to me - so much dying: family unity, peace to live one's own life, the ordinary decencies of everyday life, hopes and ambitions.
   • Roger Scruton once wrote, ‘The principal damage done by liberalism has come from its relentless scoffing at ordinary prohibitions and decencies.’
   • This leaves thinking people intimidated and in despair for the decencies they revere.
   • The politics of behaviour is essentially about how we reteach these common decencies.
   • No doubt there are decent men and women in politics, but not many are articulating those decencies or performing deeds which might inspire good men and women to want to follow them.
   • ‘The root cause of anti-social behaviour,’ Field says, ‘stems from the failure of some families to promote a set of common decencies, which centre on a proper consideration of others.’
   • A glowing example of how to treat an adult theme without ever encroaching on drawing-room decencies.
   • Conversation around the table in the Servants' Hall in Blandings was seldom subversive, since Beach and Mrs Twemlow, the housekeeper, were there to see that the decencies were observed.
   • The time has come for him to revert to the old, remembered decencies of his own childhood and return, if it is still possible, to his father's grace.
   • In his term as Home Secretary between 1965 and 1967 and, to a lesser extent, from 1974 to 1976, Jenkins set about the destruction of the entire legislative underpinning of the fundamental decencies of British society.
   • He shakes his head at the thought of these bygone decencies now fallen into desuetude.
   • This is not entirely paradoxical, since Orwell saw socialism as all about preserving traditional decencies.
   • Yet the rejection of elemental decencies and self-respect on which their society is predicated amounts to a collapse of civilisation.
   • What can politics do when a growing number of families fail to teach their children a set of common decencies?
   • One would naturally expect a man in that situation to give some thought to the essential decencies - to devote himself to making sure, not of his immediate benefit, but of his ultimate reputation.
   • Still, those of us who believe in the importance of fundamental human rights and decencies have reasons aplenty for optimism.
   • In the popular fiction of the time, the guardian of empire moved from the decencies of Buchan to the sex-sadism-and-snobbery of Ian Fleming's James Bond.
3. 1.3decencies Things required for a reasonable standard of life.
   体面生活的必需品
   I can't afford any of the decencies of life

   我过不起体面的生活。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • In fact, he is a nationalist who believes an independent Scotland is the only way to preserve the British decencies he grew up with - good housing, good health care and good libraries.
   • Factory farming has no traditions, no rules, no codes of honor, no little decencies to spare for a fellow creature.