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.
Too much forethought is fatal to progress, and if I had really considered difficulties I could have stayed in England and written a story instead, a most loathsome pis aller.
From A Tramp's Notebook by Roberts, Morley
Not that the law had any peculiar attraction for him; he rather accepted it as a pis aller; for, of course, he had to study something.
From Essays on Scandinavian Literature by Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth
She was merely amusing herself with him as a provincial pis aller.
From The Vision Splendid by Raine, William MacLeod
If conscience must reign supreme, all government is a pis aller, and in anarchy the true millennium must be found.
From Henry VIII. by Pollard, A. F. (Albert Frederick)
But this, it must be remembered, would leave the work of Southern Slav Unity incomplete, and is only to be regarded as a pis aller.
From The War and Democracy by
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.
