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
The canaille have taken to parade the streets, singing and shouting their odious songs, and Jocasse has suffered much from the disturbance.
From Sir Jasper Carew His Life and Experience by Lever, Charles James
The Sunday following—I am ashamed to say it—our cur� Daniel, and many other cur�s in our neighborhood, preached that Garibaldi was a canaille.
From The Pl?biscite or, A Miller's Story of the War by Chatrian, Alexandre
The canaille that had crouched for a century seemed in some unaccountable way to be changing its posture!
From The Red Cockade by Weyman, Stanley John
By reason of the riot, however, this teacher's, family had again become conspicuous; the pitiful canaille having allowed themselves to be soothed by an old woman.
From Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine by Auerbach, Berthold
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.
