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bête noire
[ beyt nwahr; French bet nwar ]
noun
- a person or thing especially disliked or dreaded; bane; bugbear.
bête noire
/ bɛt nwar /
noun
- a person or thing that one particularly dislikes or dreads
bête noire
- Something or someone a person views with particular dislike: “The new candidate for governor is the bête noire of all the liberals in the state.” From French, meaning “black beast.”
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Word History and Origins
Origin of bête noire1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of bête noire1
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Idioms and Phrases
A person or thing that is particularly disliked. For example, Calculus was the bête noire of my freshman courses . This phrase, French for “black beast,” entered the English language in the early 1800s. For synonyms, see pain in the neck ; thorn in one's flesh .Discover More
Example Sentences
The weather, being practically the bete noire of our existence, came in for a good deal of abuse.
It was a solution to her great difficulty, a loophole by which she might get rid of her bete noire, the hated Isabel.
Even the winter snows—forever its bete noire—did not discourage him, not for long, at any rate.
Bradwood, the rival, the bete noire of the banking-house of Mortimer & Co.
At last I lost my bete noire, and found a place close to the door with nothing but a low pile of logs in my front.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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