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

"To be sure; you don't suppose I am going to put myself out to go into the salon to receive this grisette, do you?"

From Fr?d?rique; vol. 2 by Kock, Charles Paul de

And sermons from your mouth! a little grisette who wishes to play Lucretia here.

From The Barber of Paris by Kock, Charles Paul de

She is no queen, no fairy, or great dame out of Scribe's comedies, but the peasant girl, the grisette, the heroine of the vaudeville.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846 by Various