pis aller

[pee za-ley]

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noun French.

the last resort or the final resource.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for pis aller

Band-Aid, stopgap, recourse, expediency, shift, resort, substitute, expedient, resource, refuge, replacement, improvisation, makeshift

Examples from the Web for pis aller

Historical Examples of pis aller

All this, of course, was but making the best of a pis-aller.
Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2)
Wiliam Cabell Bruce
The hospitable vicar had suggested dinner—lunch as a pis-aller.
The Gay Adventure
Richard Bird
As a pis-aller, this was accepted; and Ries remained at Arnsberg about nine months, after which he returned home.
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume I (of 3)
Alexander Wheelock Thayer
The whole is an extravagant riot of second bests, a pandemonium of pis-aller.
What's Wrong With The World
G.K. Chesterton

British Dictionary definitions for pis aller

pis aller

noun

a last resort; stopgap

Word Origin for pis aller

literally: (at) the worst going

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

Word Origin and History for pis aller

"last resource, what one would do at the worst," 1670s, French, literally "to go worse," from pis "worse," from Latin peius, neuter of peior "worse" (see pejorative) + aller "to go."