Definition of "respectable" []

• Meriting respect or esteem; worthy. (adjective)
• Of or appropriate to good or proper behavior or conventional conduct. (adjective)
• Of moderately good quality: respectable work. (adjective)
• Considerable in amount, number, or size: a respectable sum of money. (adjective)
• Acceptable in appearance; presentable: a respectable hat. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Duke of Argyle's 'respectable guest,' and _post_, under Sept. 5, 1780, writes of 'the _respectable_ notion which should ever be entertained of my illustrious friend.'"
• "I think, therefore, that whilst others have been for some time already formed in the neighborhood, your use of the term respectable was, to say the least of it, unhandsome."
• "Here, to the number of six hundred, was assembled all of the democracy of Mobile having a claim to the term respectable, properly applied to habit and character, not to calling or wealth."