grisette

[gri-zet]

noun

a young French workingwoman.

Origin of grisette

1690–1700; < French, equivalent to gris gray (see griseous) + -ette -ette; originally a cheap gray fabric, or dress made of such fabric, worn by young working women in the garment trade

Related formsgri·set·tish, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for grisette

Historical Examples of grisette

But no one will blame the same student for living in concubinage with a grisette.
The Sexual Question
August Forel
Perhaps you would have had me aspire higher than a grisette?
Dreamers of the Ghetto
I. Zangwill
The modiste and the grisette are, doubtless, well read in the mysteries of.
Nuts and Nutcrackers
Charles James Lever
No, that has the savor of a grisette, or a fillette, a league away!
Paul and His Dog, v.1 (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIII)
Charles Paul de Kock
And the interview of the lady and the grisette began in this fashion.
The Wandering Jew, Complete
Eugene Sue

British Dictionary definitions for grisette

grisette

noun

(esp formerly) a French working-class girl, esp a pretty or flirtatious one

an edible toadstool of the genus Amanita of broad-leaved and birch woods

Word Origin for grisette

C18: from French, from grisette grey fabric used for dresses, from gris grey

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012