grisette

American  

[gri-zet] / grɪˈzɛt /

noun

1. a young French workingwoman.

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grisette British  

/ ɡrɪˈzɛt /

noun

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

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

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Other Word Forms

• grisettish adjective

Etymology

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

Example Sentences

Anne Hathaway, who plays the fallen grisette Fantine, first saw the musical at age 8, when her mother appeared in a touring production.

From Slate • Dec. 24, 2012

You may, like Twain, have signally failed to track down a single grisette in Paris: "For three or four days I was constantly saying, 'Quick Fergusson, is that a grisette?' and he always said no."

From The Guardian • Mar. 5, 2011

Let us return to what you were saying: a very pretty grisette, and a messenger for your rival.

From San-Cravate; or, The Messengers; Little Streams by Kock, Charles Paul de

The grisette carries out her plan: she puts her clothes in pawn, without regret or melancholy.

From Fr?d?rique; vol. 1 by Kock, Charles Paul de

Mathilde Mirat, a lively grisette of sixteen, was the illegitimate daughter of a man of wealth and position in the provinces, and she had come up from Normandy to serve in her aunt's shoe-shop.

From The Prose Writings of Heinrich Heine by Heine, Heinrich