well-ˈmannered, a.
† 1. Endowed with good morals, displaying virtuous conduct and behaviour. Obs.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xi. 260 A mayde wel ymanered, of good men yspronge. c 1400 Destr. Troy 6320 Patroclus, þe proud kyng, was..Wel manert & meke. c 1450 tr. De Imitatione i. xxv. 37 Hou swete it is..to se fervent & deuoute breþren & wel manerd [bene morigeratos] & under discipline. a 1475 Ashby Dicta Philos. 113 Wele manered people bene of goode lif. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 45 Whiche were in theyr conuersacyon ryght honest & well manerd. 1570 T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. 78 In Chirches well ordered and well mannered [In ecclesiis bene institutis atque moratis] there was [etc.]. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 235 A man quha feiret God, and Was Weil maneret, and of singular conditiounis [singulari morum probitate praedito]. 1597 J. King On Jonas (1618) 382 To nurse you vp in a ciuil & well-mannered country. |
2. Displaying good manners, courteous.
| 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. iii. (1870) 132 The people of the Englyshe pale be metely wel manerd,..but naturally they be testy. 1574 Hellowes Guenara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 74 Haue a care to be well manered: for with good manners, more than with any other thing we withdrawe our enimies, and do susteine our friends. 1682 Dryden Medall Ep. to Whigs, By which well-mannerd and charitable Expressions, I was certain of his Sect, before I knew his name. 1693 ― Juv. Ded. (1697) p. lxv, A Well-manner'd Court-Slave. 1714 Mrs. Manley Adv. Rivella 38, I was too well manner'd to take the Black, and leave none to attend your Ladyship. 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 227 Where's your well-manner'd Deceiver gone, Child? says she. 1847 Mrs. Gore Castles in Air vi, Though good-looking, and even well-mannered, because courteous and unaffected, they had no pretension to be ladies. 1847 Lytton Lucretia i. i, The boy..was so lively, yet so well mannered. |
| absol. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' Martin xxiii. 244, I have given up association with the well-bred and the well-mannered, to rub shoulders with the coarse-minded, the rough-hearted, and the vulgar. |