pis aller
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pis aller
literally: (at) the worst going
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.
Substitutes for butcher’s meat too often suggest the purely vegetarian dish that to most people is but a pis aller.
From Household Administration Its Place in the Higher Education of Women by Various
Just tell me that I'm nothing but a pis aller, the sort of man you wouldn't want as a husband.
From The Song of Songs by Sudermann, Hermann
But don't you see, if it is said that she was obliged to leave Milan, it puts us in the position of a pis aller!
From A Siren by Trollope, Thomas Adolphus
Dinner was looked forward to with curiosity, as well as appetite; my wife, as usual, distrusting our experiments, was not sanguine of success, and made ready some plain food as a pis aller*.
From Swiss Family Robinson by Wyss, Johann David
Yet he is largely a pis aller for the would-be reader of Cassius Dio.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
