canaille
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of canaille
1670–80; < French < Italian canaglia pack of dogs, equivalent to can ( e ) dog (< Latin canis ) + -aglia collective suffix
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 knew nothing of that silent middle class that struggled between genteel poverty and the impossible desire of emulating the golden canaille to which he himself belonged.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
I think you have hit on the very answer to your question; not but what men of high birth were as mad as the canaille.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February, 1852 by
The enemies of the church are to be found almost exclusively in the bourgeoisie, and still more in the canaille, of that literature.
From The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2 by Schlegel, Friedrich
She was sorry for the canaille, the Effie Mays, who had no such inner power to rely upon....
From Why Joan? by Kelly, Eleanor Mercein
Count you the fork and spoons, Mr Robbins, and see that these canaille music men come not down the air—ree.
From Lady Maude's Mania by Fenn, George Manville
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.
