pousse-café

[ poos-ka-fey; French poos-ka-fey ]

/ ˌpus kæˈfeɪ; French pus kaˈfeɪ /

Save This Word!

noun, plural pousse-ca·fés

[poos-ka-feyz; French poos-ka-fey]. /ˌpus kæˈfeɪz; French pus kaˈfeɪ/.

an after-dinner drink of liqueurs of various colors and specific gravities, carefully poured into a glass so as to remain floating in separate layers.

a small glass of liqueur served after coffee.

QUIZ

WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

who

whom

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of pousse-café

1875–80; <French: literally, (it) pushes on (the) coffee

Words nearby pousse-café

pourparty, pourpoint, pourriture noble, pour test, pousada, pousse-café, poussette, Poussin, pou sto, pout, pouter

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pousse-café in a sentence

As a cafe in Sydney, Australia came under siege by a hostage-taking gunman on Monday, those nearby attempted to flee the area.
In Defense of Uber’s Awful Sydney Surge Pricing|Olivia Nuzzi|December 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
America already has a cereal cafe, Cereality, which has a store in Virginia and at the Dallas Fort Worth airport.
Cereal Cafe’s Big Bowl of Hate|David Levesley|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But in October 2010, Palestinian security forces stormed into an Internet cafe and arrested me.
What It’s Like to Be an Atheist in Palestine|Waleed al-Husseini, Movements.Org|December 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Boyfriend, a New Orleans-based rapper who prefers not to reveal her real name, gets up from her decaf cafe au lait.
From Church of Christ to Pansexual Rapper|Tyler Gillespie|November 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST

In January, an attack on a Lebanese cafe popular with expats left 21 people dead.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley|Matt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman|November 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They take in a couple of French papers at this cafe, and the same number of Belgian journals.
Little Travels and Roadside Sketches|William Makepeace Thackeray
Their generosity did not suffice for his dissipations, his cafe bills and his unbridled taste for billiards.
Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A -- Z|Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe
No long endless tables and big red velvet divans, as in a cafe!
A Summary History of the Palazzo Dandolo|Anonymous
At Tarascon, in a cafe, an hour ago; fifteen men attacked me, and I seized a knife to defend myself.
File No. 113|Emile Gaboriau
I tore off the wrappings and spread out the diamonds on the cafe table; I could not believe they were real.
In the Fog|Richard Harding Davis

British Dictionary definitions for pousse-café

pousse-café

/ French (puskafe) /

noun

a drink of liqueurs of different colours in unmixed layers

any liqueur taken with coffee at the end of a meal

Word Origin for pousse-café

literally: coffee-pusher

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