Most miserable is the estate of those gentlemen, which think it a blemish to their ancestors and a blot to their own gentry, to read or practise divinity.
John Lyly. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578)
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Missis always said they were poor and quite despicable: and they may be poor; but I believe they are as much gentry as the Reeds are;
Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre (1847)
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the carpenters [...] left their work, taking off the bands that fastened their hair, to greet the gentry.
Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (Translated by Constance Garnett)
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To show us so much gentry and good will.
William Shakespeare. Hamlet
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recommended it to me as a light article for summer wear, an article much in vogue among the nobility and gentry, an article that it would ever be an honor to him to reflect upon a distinguished fellow-townsman's (if he might claim me for a fellow-townsman) having worn.