gentry
Americannoun
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wellborn and well-bred people.
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(in England) the class below the nobility.
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an upper or ruling class; aristocracy.
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those who are not members of the nobility but are entitled to a coat of arms, especially those owning large tracts of land.
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(used with a plural verb) people, especially considered as a specific group, class, or kind.
The polo crowd doesn't go there, but these hockey gentry do.
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the state or condition of being a gentleman.
noun
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persons of high birth or social standing; aristocracy
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persons just below the nobility in social rank
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informal people, esp of a particular group or kind
Etymology
Origin of gentry
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English word from Old French word genterie. See gentile, gentle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Portrayed in youth by Grady Wilson, he grows up middle class in New Jersey as his mother resolves to raise him with the airs and graces of the gentry.
Eventually, such places did get “discovered,” and the local gentry might have bragged that they had just found the most delish little café hidden away in an edgy neighborhood.
From Los Angeles Times
One was based on class power of early merchant capitalists and the other based on the caste power of the Southern white gentry.
From Salon
Firstly, Holyrood is a democratically elected house rather than an assembly of aristocrats and the landed gentry.
From BBC
“He’s making the point that the British landed gentry aristocracy really are the original gangsters of the British class society,” says Daniel Ings, who plays the duke’s older brother.
From Seattle Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
