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Showing results for matinée idol. Search instead for Matinee+Idol.
Synonyms

matinée idol

American  

noun

  1. a male actor, usually a leading man, idolized especially by female audiences.


matinée idol British  

noun

  1. (esp in the 1930s and 1940s) an actor popular as a romantic figure among women

"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

Etymology

Origin of matinée idol

First recorded in 1900–05

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.

Some movie stars appear to have already accepted the demise of the matinée idol and jumped to streaming services.

From BBC • May 24, 2024

Jamie Lee Curtis is Hollywood royalty: her parents were Janet Leigh, the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” and Tony Curtis, the matinée idol from “Sweet Smell of Success.”

From The New Yorker • Dec. 1, 2019

A matinée idol slides into a velvet booth at an exclusive boîte—and the phone in the back pocket of his tuxedo pants dials his mother-in-law.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 5, 2019

Joseph Estrada, a former matinée idol who had often played Robin Hood types, rose to the presidency by promising to be hard on bad guys and good to the poor.

From Economist • Sep. 14, 2017

Henry, you are something of a matinée idol.

From Charles Frohman: Manager and Man by Marcosson, Isaac Frederick

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