adjective
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known only to connoisseurs; choice or rare
-
studiedly refined or elegant
Etymology
Origin of recherché
First recorded in 1680–90; from French, past participle of rechercher “to search for carefully”; see research
Explanation
Something that's recherche is very fancy, and maybe a little bit rare. Taking an elegant ocean liner from New York to France would be a recherche way to travel. Language can be recherche, when it's especially complicated. If you're writing a story and instead of "She said," you write "She opined" or "She emoted," your style is fairly recherche. And if everyone at a party is wearing jeans, but you wear a tuxedo, your outfit is recherche. In French, recherché means "carefully sought out," from chercher, "to search."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And restorative justice—once a fairly recherché concept on the left—has gotten widespread enough that the backlash is well under way.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2021
He quietly amassed a 5 percent stake before what Vanity Fair called “an Ali-Frazier fight for the recherché set” broke out.
From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2020
There had to be a happier way to live, a comfort zone somewhere between recherché reductivism and A&E’s “Hoarders.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2018
Inside, the conversation's covering some pretty recherché territory, but, hey, upstairs, in the covered area the tapes start rolling.
From The Guardian ● May 29, 2012
The cheap jewellery, the china ornaments, the general wares, are not of the most recherché, but of the most popular character.
From Here and There in London by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie
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.
