prudishness
Excessive moral strictness
Prudishness is excessive discomfort with matters of sex, nudity, or bodily functions—a tendency to be easily shocked or offended by what others consider normal.
The term carries judgment: calling someone's reaction prudishness implies they're being unreasonably squeamish or uptight.
Her prudishness made even swimsuit ads uncomfortable for her.
Feigning moral superiority
- self-righteousSmugly certain of correctness
- censoriousSeverely critical in judgment
- disapprovingExpressing unfavorable opinion
- judgmentalInclined to criticize others
narrow-minded · intolerance · priggish · holier-than-thou · censure · condemnation · reproach · snobbish
Of a prim era
- strait-lacedExcessively proper and strict
- old-fashionedBelonging to earlier times
- stuffyLacking fresh air
- stodgyDull, overly traditional
rigid · conventional · traditional · proper · formal · prim · square · fuddy-duddy
Modestly reserved in manner
- reservedRestrained in manner
- coyAffectedly modest
- reticentDisinclined to speak freely
- bashfulUncomfortably self-conscious
prim · timid · squeamish · discreet · proper · shrinking · delicate · fastidious
Excessively strict about morals
- virtueMoral goodness or merit
- purityUncontaminated quality
- chastityAbstaining from sexual activity
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
celibacy · propriety · decency · modesty · righteousness · moralism · temperance · continence
sanctimonious
Feigning moral superiority
- self-righteousSmugly certain of correctness
- censoriousSeverely critical in judgment
- disapprovingExpressing unfavorable opinion
judgmental · narrow-minded · intolerance · priggish · holier-than-thou · censure · condemnation · reproach · snobbish · moralizing
Victorian
Of a prim era
- strait-lacedExcessively proper and strict
- old-fashionedBelonging to earlier times
- stuffyLacking fresh air
stodgy · rigid · conventional · traditional · proper · formal · prim · square · fuddy-duddy · uptight
demure
Modestly reserved in manner
bashful · prim · timid · squeamish · discreet · proper · shrinking · delicate · fastidious · overmodest
puritanical
Excessively strict about morals
abstinence · celibacy · propriety · decency · modesty · righteousness · moralism · temperance · continence · rectitude
- sexual ethicssexual morality, sexual ethics, chastity, adultery, human sexuality
- Victorian valuesmorality, propriety, respectability, decorum, modesty
- Puritanismpuritanism, moral purity, prudery, strictness, moral rigidity
- Bowdlerizedcensored, redacted, sanitized, expurgated, cleaned
- hypocrisyhypocrisy, hypocrite, sanctimony, two-faced, self-righteousness
- self-righteousnesssanctimony, self-righteousness, moralism, holier-than-thou, judgmentalism
prudishnesspermissiveness
Tolerance of behavior others forbid
licentiousness · libertinism · promiscuity · lasciviousness · wantonness
prudishnessfrankness
Direct, unguarded honesty
candor · uninhibitedness · earthiness · bluntness · outspokenness
prudishnessopen-mindedness
Acceptance of differing viewpoints
broadmindedness · uninhibitedness · frankness · earthiness · bawdiness
prudent, prudence, imprudent, prudish, prude, imprudence, prudishly