adjective
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suave and refined
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carefree; light-hearted
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courteous and cheerful; affable
Other Word Forms
- debonairly adverb
- debonairness noun
Etymology
Origin of debonair
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English debone(i)re, from Anglo-French; Old French debonaire; the original phrase was de bon aire “of good lineage”
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.
Though he bridled against the genteel expectations of his upbringing, he was popular and effortlessly debonair.
More than 37 years after Ricardo Montalbán finished his run as Mr. Roarke, the debonair concierge of an enigmatic, wish-fulfilling beach resort in the Pacific Ocean, “Fantasy Island” is returning once more to network television.
From New York Times
There was absolutely nothing elegant about it — “No sweetness debonair of tearful harp or glib piano thine,” as Whitman wrote in “To a Locomotive in Winter.”
From New York Times
With the looks of a crooner, Galtier’s debonair appearance belies a fierce inner steel.
From Seattle Times
Born in Jerusalem and educated in the United States at Ivy League schools, he was a debonair polymath, among our last true public intellectuals.
From New York Times
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.
