dauphin
Americannoun
-
dauphins
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dauphin
1475–85; < French; Middle French dalphin, after Dauphiné ( def. ), from an agreement to thus honor the province after its cession to France
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:
In the course of his travels, he heard John Calvin speak, had his horoscope read by Nostradamus and witnessed the French dauphin toss a small dog out of a high window.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
All this may have begun with Doctorow’s Daniel, a dauphin of radical history, as anointed as he is tormented.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 29, 2019
She was already in her 50s, but I remember thinking that she seemed like a little dauphin prince, dwarfed by the gilt grandeur of her private apartment.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 14, 2017
Mr Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, was crowned as dauphin to his own father, Kim Il Sung, the country’s founding leader.
From Economist ● Apr. 28, 2016
In 1344 a Crusade, in which Venice, the Cypriots, and the Hospitallers all joined, ended in the conquest of Smyrna; in 1345 another Crusade, led by Humbert, dauphin of Vienne, ended in failure.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 7 "Crocoite" to "Cuba" by Various
We have had pretended dauphins, to add insult to exile.
From Lazarre by Mary Hartwell Catherwood
A certain Joseph Paulin figured in it—a strange person, who boasted of having received the son of Louis XVI at the door of the temple and, for this reason, was a partisan of two dauphins.
From The House of the Combrays by G. Le Notre
It has thus been conjectured by some that the dauphins of Vienne derived their title from Teutonic sources through Germany.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 "Dagupan" to "David" by Various
This explains the incredible number of false dauphins who have appeared.'
From Tales for Young and Old by Various
You observed his majesty could not pension a helpless idiot without encouraging dauphins.
From Lazarre by Mary Hartwell Catherwood
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.
