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grisette

[gri-zet]
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noun
  1. a young French workingwoman.
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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. 2018

Examples from the Web for grisette

Historical Examples

  • 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?

  • 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!

  • And the interview of the lady and the grisette began in this fashion.

British Dictionary definitions for grisette

grisette

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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Word Origin

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