roué
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of roué
1790–1800; < French, noun use of past participle of rouer to break on the wheel (derivative of roue wheel ≪ Latin rota ); name first applied to the profligate companions of the Duc d'Orléans (c1720)
Explanation
You can describe a smooth-talking, no-good man as a roue. You could also call him a lady's man, a rake, or a Lothario. This one deserves a full etymology: it's French, a participle of rouer, "to break on the wheel," and it's also the name first applied to the profligate companions of the Duc d'Orléans. So in other words, a roue is a really bad dude. Roue is not common in conversation but that didn't stop Oscar Hammerstein from lyricizing it in "The Sound of Music:" "Eager young lads and roues and cads / Will offer you food and wine."
Vocabulary lists containing roue
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.
Interrupting his trial, the jazzy “Come Up to My Office” imagines Frank wholly out of character as a suave roué.
From Washington Post • Mar. 16, 2023
Dire moves to curtail Pyros’s activity may be unnecessary, some specialists say, because there are signs the shaggy roué has lost a step.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2016
A libertine history and the look of a roué gone to seed would not in themselves preclude the support of evangelical Christians, who are, after all, keen on repentance.
From Economist • Mar. 3, 2016
But even after the success of “A Night to Remember” Rank decided not to support his pet project, an adaptation of “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, ”Alan Sillitoe’s harsh novel about a working-class roué.
From New York Times • Oct. 8, 2010
In de Maupassant's "Une Vie," he describes with profound insight the continuous deceptions of a young innocent and sentimental girl who marries an egoistic roué, and whose life is transformed into martyrdom and completely ruined.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Forel, Auguste
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.
