douceur
Americannoun
plural
douceurs-
a gratuity; tip.
-
a conciliatory gift or bribe.
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Archaic. sweetness or agreeableness.
noun
-
a gratuity, tip, or bribe
-
sweetness
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.
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
M.P., who in return sent the author a douceur of £60.
From Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp Late a Lieut. in His Majesty's 87th Regiment by Shipp, John
They also had probably passed an unquiet night; wherefore? because they were badly provided with beds, and had given them up perhaps to the soldiers for a douceur.
From Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. II. by Freytag, Gustav
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.
