Dictionary

semidecent en · ADJ

Etymology

From semi- + decent.

Meanings

1. Having a small amount of decency.
   • They talked a sales tax and large armies and large navies, but these farmers and the 6,000,000 women on the farms, who are doing an awful lot of thinking and will vote accordingly, believe that when we won the war to end war, if we had a semidecent, honest Government, there was no need and there is no need for large armies and large navies. 1922, War Department Appropriation Bill, 1923, page 648:
   • How in the hell did I ever think he was a semidecent guy? He was a douche and one hell of a good actor. 2013, Robyn Peterman, Size Matters, →ISBN:
   • The semidecent ones always get the initial guilty look, like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar; then they get the embarrassed look (as they should); then they bow out gently and leave. 1998, Gracie Cornish, 10 Bad Choices that Ruin Black Women's Lives, →ISBN, page 161:
2. Of reasonable but not excellent quality.
   • If you live with a decent (even a semidecent) system at your disposal and choose not to use it, the joke's on you. 2009, Rosalyn Hoffman, Bitches on a Budget: Sage Advice for Surviving Tough Times in Style, →ISBN:
   • You would have been proud of the vets, turning the Patton into a museum, and then into a semidecent fighting ship. 2007, Mike Shepherd, Kris Longknife: Audacious, →ISBN:
   • Rylann struggled to pull at least one semidecent retort out of the pounding fog that was her brain . . . but came up dry as a bone. 2012, Julie James, About That Night, →ISBN, page 227:

Forms