Definitions
GNU Webster's 1913
- Something especially hated or dreaded; a bugbear.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a detested person
Examples
“Heaven forefend that the last kind has ever developed for it has been my bete noire through life, more dreaded than upas-dipped arrow, or the tooth marks of a rattler, cobra, or tarantula, a pitiable admission that - for a born dog-lover.”
Recollections and reflections : an auto of half a century and more,
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bete noire’.
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appropriated phrasing
habeas corpus, beau geste, fin de siecle, décolletage, bete noire, manque, bonheur, pièce de résistance, mot juste, beau monde, gri-gri, de rigueur and 6 more...
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Loan words from French
gite, coq au vin, dernier cri, clique, hors d'œuvre, touché, naïve, coquette, bourgeois, contretemps, flâneur, film noir and 63 more...
thevirils "Bête noire", don't forget about our painful accent :) Dec 24, 2008