What's the difference between courteous and discourteous?

Courteous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of courtlike manners; pertaining to, or expressive of, courtesy; characterized by courtesy; civil; obliging; well bred; polite; affable; complaisant.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As a person, she was always kind and courteous and as a leader she was steely and determined.
  • (2) None of the backbench questions where MPs often raise serious problems that tend to be dealt with courteously by the prime minister of the day (although regrettably often neither side can resist point-scoring) ever make it beyond Today in Parliament .
  • (3) Praising the protesters for their conduct during the hearing, he said: "Whilst I recognise that this outcome will be disappointing to the defendants, I wish to pay tribute to all who participated in the hearing for the courteous and helpful way in which they conducted themselves."
  • (4) From the typed letters on Clarence House notepaper underlined in his own hand, to the clever blend of courteousness and implied threat used in his own correspondence and by his righthand man, Sir Michael Peat, the case has revealed in detail how the prince wields his power.
  • (5) Referring to the protesters, he said: "Whilst I recognise that this outcome will be disappointing to the defendants, I wish to pay tribute to all who participated in the hearing for the courteous and helpful way in which they conducted themselves."
  • (6) It is noted that: 1) both GPs and clinics have their value in contraceptive treatment; 2) clinics should be conveniently located and might be set up in buildings which are used for other health purposes at other times; 3) most women work so there should be evening sessions; 4) arrangements should be made which include both an appointments system and emergency visits; 5) reception at the clinic should be courteous and without moral judgements; 6) domiciliary services should be used only as a last resort; and 7) payment of prescription charges is now required, but there might be advantages in changing this to a free service.
  • (7) Half of each sample rated the average driver in their age group and the average driver in the opposite age group as regarded thirty-three attitudes promoting safe driving, twenty courteous safe driving behaviors and eleven discourteous, unsafe driving behaviors.
  • (8) Both companies have pointed out the human error inherent in more than 90% of traffic accidents; Chris Urmson, director of Google’s project, said last year that ultimately the goal is for its cars to be “more courteous and more defensive drivers” than human beings.
  • (9) When Murphy resumed his 100-town tour off Edinburgh’s Princes Street on Tuesday he was energetic and courteous, praising both sides for their patriotism: “No one in this debate is a traitor, no one is a quisling.” The remark was directed at angry, even threatening hecklers ( he posted the evidence on YouTube ) who had called Murphy both and forced him to suspend the tour temporarily.
  • (10) General principles of action include letting patients or relatives have their say, remaining calm, empathic, courteous, objective and sharing information with patients.
  • (11) The one word, "Willie", came to conjure up a decent, slightly slow, endlessly courteous country squire, who liked his food and drink and got on with everyone he dealt with - no mean feat for someone educated at that supremely elitist institution, Winchester.
  • (12) However, Israeli sources described the telephone conversations as friendly and courteous attempts to persuade Kunugi to delay the working group’s decision on its recommendation regarding the IDF until Israel had been allowed to present its case on the issue.
  • (13) But he is courteous, wry, insightful and very much on the left of his party.
  • (14) Low key and courteous, he confirmed there had indeed been such an MI5 file on me and that I had been under regular surveillance.
  • (15) They also want to know that it’s going to be a safe product.” Trump has not completely kept to his new, more courteous script.
  • (16) Laidlaw gently pawed her into position, confirming without doubt the date of the lunch, challenging the strength of her memory until she insisted she was absolutely certain and then, like Hannibal Lecter in a horsehair wig, softly and courteously, he cut out her heart: the incident with Kemp had happened six weeks after the lunch.
  • (17) He is courteous, almost jovial, though not quite endearing.
  • (18) He is courteous and polite, and good fun – not attributes you always associate with people connected with fashion.
  • (19) Abbott promised to reply “swiftly, fully and courteously” to Yudhoyono’s letter, in a statement to parliament on Wednesday night.
  • (20) It is certainly true that, away from the stage, the controversial, much-reviled comedian and club owner Manning, who has died aged 76 following a kidney problem, could be a polite, generous and courteous man, referring when appropriate to people as gay or black, for example, once he was off stage.

Discourteous


Definition:

  • (a.) Uncivil; rude; wanting in courtesy or good manners; uncourteous.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But the fact that there is a serious disagreement between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom does not mean that you should then be discourteous or rude."
  • (2) Half of each sample rated the average driver in their age group and the average driver in the opposite age group as regarded thirty-three attitudes promoting safe driving, twenty courteous safe driving behaviors and eleven discourteous, unsafe driving behaviors.
  • (3) I’ve certainly never heard anything as discourteous from anyone who has visited our country – and I’ve heard a lot of things.
  • (4) A spokeswoman said: "There is a meeting between management and unions and we have nothing to say before then because it would be discourteous to the unions and the process we have been involved in."
  • (5) Only 51% expressed a dislike of any aspect of the clinic (long waits, 24%; discourteous staff, 19%; and lack of cleanliness, 5%).
  • (6) In Louisville, Kentucky , several distress calls had been made by Latino voters saying they had been treated discourteously by election officials and discouraged from voting.
  • (7) Garvey naggers on with a question so weirdly phrased it sounds a bit discourteous.
  • (8) He was right to apologise because being discourteous to the police is a bad thing.
  • (9) Your coverage of Tom Watson’s excellent speech (theguardian.com, 27 September) noted that he called on Labour to stop “trashing the record” of the Blair and Brown governments but failed to mention his leading role in the “coup” against Mr Blair in 2006, which hastened his resignation a year later, prompting him to describe Watson’s actions as “disloyal, discourteous and wrong” and a “totally unnecessary attempt to unseat the party leader, less than 15 months after our historic third term victory” .
  • (10) Data shows that younger drivers viewed older drivers as overly cautious, too slow to act and apt to cause accidents, and rated their peers as overly aggressive and discourteous.
  • (11) But, by and large, the discourteousness has not been reciprocated.
  • (12) Blair attacked the move as “disloyal, discourteous and wrong” and Watson himself resigned.
  • (13) Giddings said that although he did not believe he had undermined or personally criticised Welby, he had apologised to the archbishop, who had since told him he had found nothing offensive, discourteous, impolite or disrespectful in his words.
  • (14) The judges were also asked to assess whether in their opinion the letters were of value in teaching or were discourteous.
  • (15) Nonetheless, Shkreli’s short appearance in Washington became explosive when committee members were infuriated by his discourteous facial expressions as the event unfolded.
  • (16) When I identified as either "raised as Christian" or "without belief", I never received a discourteous response, and had only one individual attempt to convert me during a discussion in the back office of his market.
  • (17) McIntyre responded with formal requests to Tom Karl at the National Climate Data Centre, where he guessed the data would have been held, and to the journal, saying Santer's response had been "discourteous".

Words possibly related to "discourteous"