cicisbeo

American  

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

noun

plural

cicisbei

1. an escort or lover of a married woman.

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cicisbeo British  

/ tʃitʃizˈbɛːo /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of cicisbeo

From Italian

Example Sentences

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

From The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller by Thomas, Calvin

The Italian cicisbeo in the seventeenth century was a cavalier servente, who attended a married lady.

From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by Sumner, William Graham

"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 Stevenson, Burton Egbert

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

From Jessamine A Novel by Harland, Marion

There was nothing too mean, too repulsive, for the domestic brute—the cicisbeo, the priest, the half-witted page—to undergo, in the stupid belief that the power of a philtre increased with its nastiness.

From La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages by Michelet, Jules