arrière-pensée
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of arrière-pensée
C19: literally: behind thought
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 I watched him tip the waiter without the least arrière-pensée on either side.
From Mr. Justice Raffles by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
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
He spoke now without the slightest arrière-pensée of flattering her, and Sylvia in her sudden burst for self-expression was unconscious of him, save as an opponent in an argument.
From The Bent Twig by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
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
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.
