observe the proprieties They'd invited us to dinner so we thought we'd better observe the proprieties and invite them back. 他们请了我们吃饭，所以我们认为最好遵循礼数回请他们。
He had no time for stuffy upper-crust social proprieties.
My childhood home was a place of unshakable proprieties - if you swore, your mouth would be washed out with soap.
Amy taunted her friend, challenging her to overcome her middle-class proprieties.
The novel is excellent in its portrayal of small-town proprieties.
See also: propriety