arrière-pensée
Americannoun
plural
arrière-penséesnoun
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.
He possessed a virtue rare among artists, that of gratitude without arrière-pensée.
From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
He was perfectly frank and manly: he spoke without arrière-pensée, he meant what he said, and was ready to believe that other people meant it too.
From A True Friend A Novel by Sergeant, Adeline
He said this, as he said so many other things, with a frank and bold directness that made any suspicion of an arrière-pensée almost an impossibility.
From With the Procession by Fuller, Henry Blake
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
The Girondists alone had an arrière-pensée in their apparent favour towards him.
From History of the Girondists, Volume I Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution by Ryde, H. T.
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.
