Tartuffe
Americannoun
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(italics) a comedy (1664–69) by Molière.
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(often lowercase) Also Tartufe a hypocritical pretender to piety.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Tartuffe
from the character in the Molière's comedy Tartuffe (1664)
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.
See Examples For:
Ncuti Gatwa performs as Valere in Tartuffe in 2012.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2026
But it strikes a false and pandering note, since Tartuffe, as in Molière, has been plainly exposed as an opportunistic, lascivious fraud—and the only one in the play.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
Once invited into his house, Tartuffe uses every nefarious scheme possible to steal from his benefactor, creating chaos for everyone around him.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2024
But his diamond-hard intelligence was immediately identifiable even when he was playing a character as willfully obtuse as Orgon in Moliere's "Tartuffe," which he magisterially performed on Broadway in 2003.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2016
Then he had her memorize a page from Molière’s Le Tartuffe and its English translation.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
The old theme of the sectarists had lost its freshness, and the cavaliers, with their royal libertine, had become as obnoxious to public decency as the Tartuffes.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2 by Disraeli, Isaac
There have been Tartuffes and tuft-hunters there, as in the great world.
From Aspects of Modern Oxford by Godley, A. D. (Alfred Denis)
"I am of your opinion," said Gordon; "it was a Tartuffe that flung me into this dungeon, and perhaps they were Tartuffes who have been the cause of your misfortunes."
From Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume by
English novelists have exposed him, but have not succeeded in extinguishing him; the Chadbands, the Stigginses, the Podsnaps, the Pecksniffs, all the saintly British Tartuffes, are as flourishing as ever.
From English Pharisees and French Crocodiles and Other Anglo-French Typical Characters by O'Rell, Max
"Such and such a man is a Rudin," has been a common expression for over fifty years, as we speak of the Tartuffes and the Pecksniffs.
From Essays on Russian Novelists by Phelps, William Lyon
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.
