prudery
Exaggerated moral delicacy
Prudery is excessive concern with propriety, especially regarding sexual matters.
A prude recoils from frank discussion of bodies or desires, finding offense where others see none.
The word carries judgment—prudery suggests the squeamishness is unreasonable or performative: Victorian prudery kept piano legs covered.
The adjective is prudish.
Smugly self-righteous
- primAffectedly proper and stiff
- puritanicalExcessively strict about morals
- sanctimoniousFeigning moral superiority
- bluenosePriggish moralistic person
moralistic · censorious · disapproving · judgmental · self-righteous · holier-than-thou · straitlaced · narrow-minded
Absence of vanity
- decencyMoral appropriateness in behavior
- virtueMoral goodness or merit
- purityUncontaminated quality
- chastityAbstaining from sexual activity
innocence · propriety · decorum · respectability · celibacy · abstinence · virginity · continence
Held back by self-consciousness
- uptightAnxiously rigid in manner
- repressedHeld back from expression
- stiffNot easily bent
- stuffyLacking fresh air
buttoned-up · constrained · restrained · overmodest · coy · demure · bashful · reserved
Of a prim era
- antiquatedOld and outdated
- outdatedNo longer in use
- fuddy-duddyOld-fashioned, overly fussy person
- squareRhombus with right angles
dated · archaic · outmoded · unfashionable · anachronistic · passe · quaint · fossilized
One lacking moral restraint
- promiscuityFrequent casual sexual encounters
- licentiousnessExcessive disregard for morality
- wantonnessUnrestrained immoral behavior
- lewdnessCrude sexual indecency
lasciviousness · immodesty · shamelessness · indecency · prurience · debauchery · hedonism · permissiveness
priggish
Smugly self-righteous
- primAffectedly proper and stiff
- puritanicalExcessively strict about morals
- sanctimoniousFeigning moral superiority
bluenose · moralistic · censorious · disapproving · judgmental · self-righteous · holier-than-thou · straitlaced · narrow-minded · rigid
modesty
Absence of vanity
chastity · innocence · propriety · decorum · respectability · celibacy · abstinence · virginity · continence · seemliness
inhibited
Held back by self-consciousness
stuffy · buttoned-up · constrained · restrained · overmodest · coy · demure · bashful · reserved · reticent
Victorian
Of a prim era
- antiquatedOld and outdated
- outdatedNo longer in use
- fuddy-duddyOld-fashioned, overly fussy person
square · dated · archaic · outmoded · unfashionable · anachronistic · passe · quaint · fossilized · retrograde
libertine
One lacking moral restraint
- promiscuityFrequent casual sexual encounters
- licentiousnessExcessive disregard for morality
- wantonnessUnrestrained immoral behavior
lewdness · lasciviousness · immodesty · shamelessness · indecency · prurience · debauchery · hedonism · permissiveness · free love
- Victorian valuesmorality, propriety, respectability, decorum, modesty
- prudishnessprimness, priggishness, prissiness, puritanism, stuffiness
- Puritanismpuritanism, moral purity, strictness, moral rigidity, strait-laced
- virtuesintegrity, honesty, justice, courage, fairness
- puritypure, purity, pristine, spotless, spotlessness
- self-righteousnesssanctimony, self-righteousness, moralism, holier-than-thou, judgmentalism
pruderylicentiousness
Excessive disregard for morality
libertinism · promiscuity · lewdness · lasciviousness · lechery
pruderynaturalness
Unaffected, uncontrived quality
frankness · openness · candor · unpretentiousness · directness
pruderyearthiness
Unpretentious, primal quality
bawdiness · ribaldry · coarseness · vulgarity · crudeness
- Dear PrudenceAdvice column persona
- Victorian prudery19th-century sexual repression
- financial prudenceCareful management of money
prudent, prudence, imprudent, prude, prudential, imprudence, imprudently