deportment
(dɪˈpɔətmənt)
[a. OF. deportement (mod.F. dé-), f. OF. deporter to deport.]
1. Manner of conducting oneself; conduct (of life); behaviour. Obs. or arch. in general sense.
| 1601 Bp. W. Barlow Defence 206 Heretickes will bee exceeding holy, both in the deportment of their life, and in [etc.]. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 1255 The honor and the shame that was to ensue unto them, by the different deportment of themselves in this action. 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 385 This Antichristian deportment, How unlike it is to the Cariage of Christ's Apostles. 1719 Young Revenge v. i, She forgives my late deportment to her. 1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. xiii. (1847) 150 Luidhard..whose saintly deportment reflected a lustre on the faith which he professed. |
† b. pl. Obs. (Cf. manners, ways.)
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 499 By his deportments and carriage in all actions. 1665 G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 26 The King..was slain for his evil deportments. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. xxiii, He humbled his deportments before her. |
2. Referring to merely external manner: Carriage, bearing, demeanour, address.
| 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 150 The bridge was full of women..many of them in faire deportment unmasqued their faces. 1641 Brome Jov. Crew i. Wks. 1873 III. 360 Provided your deportment be gentile. 1689 Shadwell Bury F. ii, His air, his mien, his deportment charm'd me so. 1761 Churchill Rosciad Wks. 1767 I. 29 What's a fine person or a beauteous face, Unless deportment gives them decent grace? 1881 Daily Tel. 27 Dec., In the character of..a dancing-master, in which capacity he gives a comical lesson in deportment. |
3. fig. The manner in which a substance acts under particular conditions; ‘behaviour’.
| 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 38 The identity of their deportment under similar circumstances. 1863 Tyndall Heat v. 146 This is illustrated by the deportment of both ice and bismuth on liquefying. |
Hence deˈportmented ppl. a. (nonce-wd.), taught deportment.
| 1861 J. Pycroft Agony Point I. 209 Frenched, and musicked, and deportmented. |