franc-tireur
Americannoun
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francs-tireurs
plural
noun
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a sniper
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a guerrilla or irregular soldier
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of franc-tireur
First recorded in 1800–10
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:
A stowaway foretopman on the ship of state; a franc-tireur for the West and Christendom; a Burke, a Roland, a Quixote, with a whiff of Falstaff and a swing of the snickersnee.
From Time Magazine Archive
That such measures have not been pushed to an extreme by the British authorities is shown by the fact that the captured guerilla has been made a prisoner of war—unlike his prototype, the franc-tireur.
From The War in South Africa Its Cause and Conduct by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Other German war-writers state that the Belgian and French Governments had organized a franc-tireur warfare long before, and this accusation is one of the pillars of Germany's defence for the destruction of Louvain.
From What Germany Thinks The War as Germans see it by Thomas F. A. Smith
Lest he be taken for a franc-tireur he was entirely unarmed, and he wore a thick blue blouse, gray trousers equally thick, and heavy boots.
From The Hosts of the Air by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
DUCAT, a franc-tireur of the woods at Dieulet.
From A Zola Dictionary; the Characters of the Rougon-Macquart Novels of Emile Zola; by J. G Patterson
I thought only of the long avenues of trees which stretched across that flat country, and which could hide whole companies of francs-tireurs.
From The Four Corners of the World by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
You harbor the francs-tireurs from the wood of Dieulet, among them that Sambuc who is brother to your hired man; you supply the bandits with provisions.
From The Downfall by E. P. Robins
The camp was already astir; Jean and Maurice took the francs-tireurs to Captain Beaudoin, who conducted them to the quarters of Colonel Vineuil.
From The Downfall by E. P. Robins
In such cases the obvious interest of the soldier is to conceal his mistake, and a convenient method of doing so is to raise the cry of "francs-tireurs!"
From New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 April-September, 1915 by Various
The village people standing at their doors said, "It is the francs-tireurs!"
From The Pl?biscite or, A Miller's Story of the War by Alexandre Chatrian
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.
