chef-d'oeuvre
Americannoun
plural
chefs-d'oeuvrenoun
Etymology
Origin of chef-d'oeuvre
Borrowed into English from French around 1610–20
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.
Thirty-five years after "Die Hard" hit theaters, the Bruce Willis vehicle maintains its rep as a chef-d'oeuvre due to its perennial relevance.
From Salon
But the worst of all is that this crocodile imagines that it is a chef-d'oeuvre and that it has a monopoly on all the tender passions.
From Project Gutenberg
His beautiful lines on the death of his wife are a chef-d'oeuvre of mourning poetry and one of the gems of literature.
From Project Gutenberg
He knew it to be his chef-d'oeuvre, and looked forward, with a natural eagerness, to the moment when he should display it before its future possessors, and receive their congratulations on his success.
From Project Gutenberg
The dinner—and it was a "chef-d'oeuvre" on the part of Mrs. Branagan—passed off most pleasantly.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
