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Politeness

POLITENESS:

  1. The screen of language; the irony of civility; a fishing-rod.
  2. A substitute for war.
  3. To wipe your feet carefully on the common doormat before letting yourself in another's premises with a skeleton key.
  4. Caliban in a boiled shirt, tuxedo and spats. (Politeness in the animal world is known after eating only; in the human world it is known both before and after eating, and, in a certain restricted circle, during eating.)