Managed tag
Entries relating to politeness.
Suggested home: Social life & etiquette / Politeness & apologies
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Using 'cheers' as a greeting, farewell, acknowledgement, apology or vague conversational glue.
Read full entry →A polite conversational gap left solely to avoid sounding blunt.
Read full entry →A verbal alarm indicating that something deeply insulting is about to be said.
Read full entry →Politely requesting approval before immediately ignoring whether it was granted.
Read full entry →A polite observation indicating that someone has made an extraordinary error in judgement.
Read full entry →A uniquely British sideways manoeuvre performed with unnecessary apologies.
Read full entry →Attempting to navigate around an oblivious person while repeatedly apologising for their obstruction.
Read full entry →An entirely fictional location into which inconvenient advice is politely deposited and never revisited.
Read full entry →Wrapping an unequivocal refusal in imaginary uncertainty for the sake of politeness.
Read full entry →A single-word review indicating that something is fundamentally awful while remaining impeccably polite.
Read full entry →A completely fictional social arrangement created purely to end an interaction on friendly terms.
Read full entry →Politely suggesting a future social engagement that both parties understand will never happen.
Read full entry →A socially accepted deception in which your own desire to leave is disguised as concern for someone else's time.
Read full entry →The strategic, open-ended postponement of a social event, acting as a polite smokescreen for the fact that you despise their company.
Read full entry →A bold, unapologetic approach to a first date meal that skips any pretence of eating lightly to seem polite.
Read full entry →Instinctively saying sorry after a dispute, regardless of whether they were actually in the right the whole time.
Read full entry →Delivering a passive-aggressive reminder of a prior message with just enough politeness to seem professional and just enough edge to sting.
Read full entry →A polite-sounding email sign-off that pre-emptively guilts the recipient into compliance before they've agreed to anything.
Read full entry →Quietly betrayed by the gap between a glossy photograph and the sad reality delivered to the table.
Read full entry →Simmering with private resentment while maintaining an entirely normal, unbothered exterior.
Read full entry →Sincere-sounding but entirely hollow; loaded with warmth that carries no actual intention behind it.
Read full entry →A frantic, undignified jog performed purely out of social obligation not to make a polite stranger wait too long.
Read full entry →An awkward digital standoff where everyone waits politely for someone else to click the red button first.
Read full entry →A courteous but entirely useless verbal gesture broadcast to a platform of furious, delayed commuters.
Read full entry →The dictionary is still being written
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