polite society

polite society (uncountable)

1. The elite or upper crust of society.
   • 1803, Maria Edgeworth, The Manufacturers:

     [H]e had been brought up in an extravagant family, who considered tradesmen and manufacturers as a caste disgraceful to polite society.

   • 1863, William Makepeace Thackeray, Roundabout Papers:

     [I]n the midst of the company assembled the reader's humble servant was present, and in a very polite society, too, of "poets, clergymen, men of letters, and members of both Houses of Parliament."

   • 1873, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter VI, in The Parisians‎, book IX:

     […] a club especially favoured by wits, authors, and the flaneurs of polite society.

2. That portion of society that is especially concerned with etiquette, proper behavior, and politeness.
   • 1892, F. Marion Crawford, chapter 14, in Pietro Ghisleri:

     [S]he managed with considerable effort to keep up a sufficient outward semblance of mourning to satisfy the customs and fashions of polite society.

   • 1909, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 6, in The Gem Collector:

     Scenes, Lady Jane had explained—on the occasion of his knocking down an objectionable cabman during their honeymoon trip—were of all things what polite society most resolutely abhorred.

   • 2002 May 26, Frank Gibney Jr., “Can a Church Go Broke?”, in Time‎:

     It used to be said that in polite society one shouldn't discuss sex or money.

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