A man, indeed, is not genteel when he gets drunk; but most vicesmay be committed verygenteelly: a manmay debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cardsgenteelly.

-Boswell,James
  The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.2, entry for 6  Apr.

What all men should avoid is the'shabby genteel'. No man ever gets over it† You had better be in rags.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  Endymion, ch.23.

Her occasional pretty and picturesque use of dialect wordsöthose terrible marks of the beast to the truly genteel.

-Hardy,Thomas
  The Mayor of Casterbridge, ch.20.