Nice-nelliness

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state or quality of being a nice Nelly; prudishness or excessive modesty. uncountable

    "Sterling himself, though he had the most picturesque and inimitable vocabulary of vituperation, was highly squeamish about ordinary smut or profanity. He had indeed that nice-Nelliness which is often characteristic of the Don Juan type."

Synonyms

All synonyms
nice-nellyism

Example

More examples

"Sterling himself, though he had the most picturesque and inimitable vocabulary of vituperation, was highly squeamish about ordinary smut or profanity. He had indeed that nice-Nelliness which is often characteristic of the Don Juan type."

Etymology

From nice Nelly + -ness.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.