as in Victorian
given to or marked by very conservative standards regarding personal behavior or morals
the novel's wildly off base portrayal of 18th-century aristocrats as nice-nelly exemplars of decorum
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in puritan
a person who is greatly concerned with seemly behavior and morality especially regarding sexual matters
some nice nelly bowdlerized this collection of wartime ditties that were lustily sung by the men around the campfire
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in puritanism
a tendency to care a great deal about seemly behavior and morals especially in sexual matters
a misguided nice-nellyism prompted the city-owned art museum to cancel its scheduled exhibit on the nude in photography
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nice-nelly
Adjective
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Paying homage to the Victorian era through a novel and contemporary Australian lens, McRae feels like a trapeze between past and present.—
Brad Japhe,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2025 -
The team tested ten different approaches on 200-year-old human brain tissue recovered from Bristol’s former Blackberry Hill Hospital, once a Victorian workhouse and originally a prison for 18th-century war captives.—
Jenny Lehmann,
Discover Magazine,
30 May 2025
Adjective
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First, the movement of women telling their stories of victimization online was dismissed by many as a toxic importation of puritanical American mores that were unnecessary in a culture of seduction and harmony between the sexes.—
Catherine Porter,
New York Times,
15 May 2025
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Over the past few years, generational warfare has only ramped up—so much so that it’s become boring to even reference: Gen Z hating on millennials for being cringe, millennials hating on Gen Z for being puritanical, and everyone hating on boomers for being, well, boomers.—
Daisy Jones,
Vogue,
3 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Nice-nelly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nice-nelly. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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