demimondaine
Americannoun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of demimondaine
1890–95; < French, equivalent to demimonde demimonde + -aine feminine adj. suffix < Latin -āna -an
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.
A demimondaine with a shocking reputation, by the time of her death, in 1954, Colette was an institution, the first French woman of letters ever honored with a state funeral.
From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2023
Oren, more interested in small gestures than gleaming sound, begins the first scene with bumptious brasses and a breakneck tempo that make the room spin, spelling disaster for Verdi’s hard-partying demimondaine.
From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2022
At whatever age, Kim Stanley proves a gifted actress, but she seems about as Gallic as cornflakes and as demimondaine as Betsy Ross.
From Time Magazine Archive
To many another princely sprig, millionaire, archduke and demimondaine of the fey '90s, Maxim's in Paris' rue Royale was the most elegant bistro in Europe, the gaudiest symbol of the mauve decadence.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was no interesting toil to relieve their unhappy lot, and no distinction was made of the insane, the law-breaking criminal, and the wretched streetwalker or demimondaine.
From Orphans of the Storm by MacMahon, Henry
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.
