The trait of behaving with reserve and decorum.

Roget 881: modesty; humility etc. 879; diffidence, timidity; retiring disposition; unobtrusiveness; bashfulness etc. adj.; mauvaise honte [Fr.]; blush, blushing; verecundity^†; self-knowledge.    reserve, constraint; demureness etc. adj.; blushing honors" [Henry VIII]. ... show more

Roget 855: affectation; affectedness etc. adj.; acting a part etc. v.; pretense etc. (falsehood) 544, (ostentation) 882; boasting etc. 884.    charlatanism, quackery, shallow profundity; pretension, airs, pedantry, purism, precisianism, euphuism; teratology etc. (altiloquence) 577.    mannerism, simagree, grimace.    conceit, foppery, dandyism, man millinery, coxcombry, puppyism.    stiffness, formality, buckram; prudery, demureness, coquetry, mock modesty, minauderie, sentimentalism; mauvais honte, false shame.    affector, performer, actor; pedant, pedagogue, doctrinaire, purist, euphuist, mannerist; grimacier; lump of affectation, precieuse ridicule [Fr.], bas bleu [Fr.], blue stocking, poetaster; prig; charlatan etc. (deceiver) 548; petit maitre etc. (fop) 854; flatterer etc. 935; coquette, prude, puritan.    ... show more

The affectation of being demure in a provocative way.

synonym: coyness.