From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdignitydig‧ni‧ty /ˈdɪɡnəti/ ●●○ noun [uncountable] 1 PRIDE/SELF-RESPECTthe ability to behave in a calm controlled way even in a difficult situationwith dignity The family faced their ordeal with dignity. an appearance of quiet dignity2 → your dignity3 the fact of being respected or deserving respectwith dignity Patients should be allowed to die with dignity. Prisoners should be treated with regard for human dignity.4 PEACEFULa calm and serious qualitydignity of the dignity of the occasion5 → stand on your dignity
Examples from the Corpus
dignity• Juana Alvarez was a woman of compassion and dignity.• It may lend a certain dignity to the whole transaction but is notoriously slow.• Chichester, by contrast, acquired a considerable dignity from its role as a religious centre.• Oh, no! that would be beneath her dignity.• She lost her home and all her money, but she never lost her dignity.• Penn is granted human dignity by Sarandon, the nun who gently coaxes him into his own redemption.• Both solemn and very funny, it insistently finds poetry in the projects, dignity on the street.• This was based on an explicit philosophy of preserving the dignity and independence of patients.• Lawyers must respect the dignity of the court.• Very sick people should be allowed to die with dignity.• She also was pregnant, but she bore her troubles with dignity and we all admired her very much.human dignity• And when his human dignity was gone, his innocence sullied, he felt something sharp plunge into his chest.• She was spared the trauma of dinner, the object lesson in human dignity, and the smoke of Revolution.• This belief runs counter both to demographics and to the demands of human dignity.• One is the notion of human dignity which has come to pervade modern ethical and social thought in the West.• Regulated, socialised economies trample on human dignity, despoil the natural environment and depress economic performance.• It is simply a matter of reasonable human dignity.• The real issue, they predict, will boil down to fairness and simple human dignity.• In the prison camp, it was hard to retain some human dignity.• The relationship struck at the very roots of their human dignity.Origin dignity (1100-1200) Old French dignité, from Latin dignitas “worth”, from dignus “deserving admiration” 