rudery

R1U1D2E1R1Y4

noun

Crudeness; the use of crude language.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

nounrudery (usually uncountable, plural ruderies)

plural ruderies

  1. countableuncountableusuallyCrudeness; the use of crude language.

    1992, Jeremy Isaacs, quoted in John Hartley, Tele-ology: Studies in Television, page 67, But if people try to blow the transmitters by their rudery they are going to make life very difficult for themselves and for the Channel.

    3 more examples

    Whatever contradictions fuelled, or at this time failed to fuel my cartooning, I would have been better throwing in my lot with overt rudery and dysfunction, rather than trying to gain acceptance from the effete mob that ran the New Yorker.

    2007, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, page 56

    The other children loved his nickname and were now able to share the ruderies they didn′t dare read out in the French lesson.

    2010, Gerald Killingworth, Mister Misery, page 200

    All of which is confirmed by Lockhart′s attack on Hunt′s pantheon: Voltaire (French, and therefore renowned for licentiousness), Chaucer (whose work was full of ruderies), John Buncle (the story of an amorous Unitarian) and Launcelot of the Lake (about a morally questionable liaison).

    2012, Duncan Wu, editor, John Gibson Lockhardt (1794—1854): Romanticism: An Anthology, page 1376

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

rudery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rudery

MLA

“rudery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rudery. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rudery,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rudery.

Source: rudery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.