Dictionary

ladiness en · NOUN

Etymology

From lady + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The quality of being a lady.
   • Two, Mother and aunt Wheezie were equally as passionate that I should become a lady. Becoming a lady was such hard work I hated it. I couldn’t fathom why any girl would want to be one. Furthermore, I clearly understood at the ripe old age of eight that Mother and Wheezie often strayed from the path of ladiness. 1997, Albemarle:
   • “Ladiness” is grounded in a rather rigid code of behavior that varies only slightly according to ethnic or cultural values. 1990, Claudia Bepko, Jo Ann Krestan, Too Good for Her Own Good: Breaking Free from the Burden of Female Responsibility, page 18:
   • Mother believed round garters cut off the circulation and caused varicose veins, so she kept me in a pantywaist several years longer than most boys. Nobody knew this except me and Mother, and I was particularly careful to keep it a secret because there was a touch of ladiness to a waist after a boy got about so big. 1966, John Gould, Last One In: Tales of a New England Boyhood, a Gently Pleasing Dip into a Cool, Soothing Pool of the Not-So-Long-Ago, So to Speak, page 153:

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