douceur
Americannoun
-
douceurs
plural
-
a gratuity; tip.
-
a conciliatory gift or bribe.
-
Archaic. sweetness or agreeableness.
noun
-
a gratuity, tip, or bribe
-
sweetness
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of douceur
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French: sweetness < Late Latin dulcor, with initial syllable reshaped under influence of French doux, douce; see douce, -eur
Explanation
When dining out at a restaurant, one might offer a douceur — a small gratuity, or tip — to help ensure fast seating or good service. More broadly, the term can also serve as a polite euphemism for a bribe. Douceur comes from a Middle French word meaning "sweetness," and you can think of a douceur as something that sweetens a deal. It often refers to an extra payment or gift intended to gain favor or get a better deal. It's a bit of an old-fashioned word that is rarely heard in modern conversation, but you'll find it in classic literature to describe a tactful bribe.
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:
Nonetheless, an otherwise rollicking chapter on the Frankfurt Book Fair gradually saddens into an elegy for the douceur de vivre before the Revolution.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2015
The collections ranged from 18th-century douceur de vivre to 20th-century avant-garde, prompting the childless Doucet to observe, "I was successively my grandfather, my father, my son, and my grandson."
From Architectural Digest ● Aug. 27, 2014
Thus buttressed by a professional support-group, the bereaved writer projects his or her mask of mourning into the public domain and can expect to be treated with a kind of 19th-century douceur.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 19, 2011
He little thought how near he was to the opportunity he desired—of earning the duplicate of that douceur.
From The White Gauntlet by Mayne Reid
Julian accepted the douceur with eagerness—not without profound astonishment at being so generously recompensed for reporting the re-appearance of Arroyo and his band!
From The Tiger Hunter by Mayne Reid
His douceurs were nought but such as an artillery marshal might declaim.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Truce with your douceurs, good servant; you see I am addressing to the princess; pray do not embarrass me—Embarrass me! what a delicious French word do you make me lose upon you too!
From The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 04 by Sir Walter Scott
He is taken in by sounding titles, or he penetrates through all bombast and promises and douceurs to the real merit or demerit of the man himself.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St John, Vol. II by Marcus Dods
It is possible that some of the douceurs given to the possessors by his original proposal were not really in accordance with his own judgment.
From A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate by A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones) Greenidge
However, the difficulty was overcome, though not quite as easily as if douceurs had happened to be in fashion; and we were permitted to land with all our necessary effects.
From The Monikins by James Fenimore Cooper
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.
