arrière-pensée

American  

[a-ryer-pahn-sey] / a ryɛr pɑ̃ˈseɪ /

noun

French.

plural

arrière-pensées

1. a mental reservation; hidden motive.

---

arrière-pensée British  

/ arjɛrpɑ̃se /

noun

1. an unrevealed thought or intention

---

Etymology

Origin of arrière-pensée

C19: literally: behind thought

Example Sentences

The latter, at last, answered him, not condescendingly, as Alyosha had feared, but with modesty and reserve, with evident goodwill and apparently without the slightest arrière-pensée.

From The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

As a matter of fact, there was an arrière-pensée underlying his words.

From 'Tween Snow and Fire A Tale of the Last Kafir War by Mitford, Bertram

Tintoretto communicated his own savage grandeur, his own unrest, to those whom he depicted; Paolo Veronese charmed without arrière-pensée by the intensity of vitality which with perfect simplicity he preserved in his sitters.

From The Later Works of Titian by Phillips, Claude

It may be regarded as highly improbable that she will maintain honourably and with no arrière-pensée the obligations undertaken in the interests of German commerce in Morocco.

From Germany and the Next War by Bernhardi, Friedrich von

But the needy poet may have had some arrière-pensée.

From Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal by Butler, Harold Edgeworth