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cicisbeo

American  
[chee-chiz-bey-oh, si-sis-bee-oh, chee-cheez-be-oh] / ˌtʃi tʃɪzˈbeɪ oʊ, sɪˈsɪs biˌoʊ, ˌtʃi tʃizˈbɛ oʊ /

noun

  • cicisbei
    plural
  1. an escort or lover of a married woman.


cicisbeo British  
/ tʃitʃizˈbɛːo /

noun

  1. the escort or lover of a married woman, esp in 18th-century Italy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of cicisbeo

From Italian

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.

See Examples For:

Father Andrea, who was of Florentine birth, would go with them; and with such a cicisbeo, they would see and understand all the treasures of the past and the present, antique and modern art.

From London Pride Or When the World Was Younger by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

The cicisbeo was the professed gallant of a married woman, who attended her at all public entertainments, it being considered unfashionable for the husband to be escort.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various

For several months he played this unwholesome role of cicisbeo to Charlotte von Kalb.

From The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller by Calvin Thomas

Heretofore, he had shunned everything that could secure for him the reputation of a cicisbeo.

From Jessamine A Novel by Marion Harland

"C'est convenable, j'espère hein?" she murmurs, and her bald-headed cicisbeo, who has taken possession of her sheet, hastens to assure her that all is well.

From Affairs of State by Burton Egbert Stevenson

We divine the coming age of cicisbei and castrati.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 6 "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad" by Various

Before long he will be dust, and then it will be the turn of Don Gastone, and frati will give place to cicisbei.

From The Fool Errant Being the Memoirs of Francis-Anthony Strelley, Esq., Citizen of Lucca by Maurice Henry Hewlett

The ladies sit within, and the cicisbei stand on the foot-boards, on each side of the coach, entertaining them with their discourse.

From Travels through France and Italy by T. (Tobias) Smollett

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