petit bourgeois

[ puh-teeboor-zhwah; pet-ee boor-zhwah, boor-zhwah; French puh-tee boor-zhwa ]

noun,plural pe·tits bour·geois [puh-teeboor-zhwahz; pet-ee boor-zhwahz, boor-zhwahz; French puh-tee boor-zhwa]. /pəˈti bʊərˈʒwɑz; ˈpɛt i ˈbʊər ʒwɑz, bʊərˈʒwɑz; French pə ti burˈʒwa/.
  1. a person who belongs to the petite bourgeoisie.

Origin of petit bourgeois

1
Borrowed into English from French around 1855–60

Other words from petit bourgeois

  • pe·tit-bour·geois, adjective

Words Nearby petit bourgeois

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use petit bourgeois in a sentence

  • He is the petit bourgeois, the picier, the class which the world ridicules.

    Huntingtower | John Buchan
  • To think that you, a watchmaker and a petit bourgeois, should experience what many a saint has died without realizing!

    Read-Aloud Plays | Horace Holley
  • The cabanon is really the maison de campagne of the petit bourgeois of the cities and towns.

    Rambles on the Riviera | Francis Miltoun
  • It is their nave and faithful representation of the life of the Parisian petit bourgeois that seems to Brne so admirable.

  • There were no jarring notes or lavish, tawdry display, the pitfalls into which the parvenue and petit bourgeois invariably fall.

    When Dreams Come True | Ritter Brown

British Dictionary definitions for petit bourgeois

petit bourgeois

/ (ˈpɛtɪ ˈbʊəʒwɑː, French pəti burʒwa) /


nounplural petits bourgeois (ˈpɛtɪ ˈbʊəʒwɑːz, French pəti burʒwa)
  1. Also called: petite bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie the section of the middle class with the lowest social status, generally composed of shopkeepers, lower clerical staff, etc

  2. a member of this stratum

adjective
  1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the petit bourgeois, esp indicating a sense of self-righteousness and a high degree of conformity to established standards of behaviour

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