GENTLEFOLK • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Gentlefolk

... cannot, of course, be represented as an immediate and complete triumph for evolutionary doctrine. This was precluded by the character and temper of the audience, most of whom were less capable of being convinced by the arguments than shocked by the boldness of the retort, although, being gentlefolk, as Professor Farrar remarks, they were disposed to admit on reflection that the Bishop had erred on the score of taste and good manners. Nevertheless, it was a noticeable feature of the occasion, Sir M. Foster tells me, that ...

— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 1 • Leonard Huxley

... meant to cheat. It is the gentlefolk who have teased him into doing it; they would be taken in. If a poor boy like him tells a lie about money, or anything else in which they are 'up,' they are ready enough to thrash it out of him; but when it is something out of their way, like saying: he has had a ...

— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr