Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small, exquisitely wrought trinket.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. . A jewel; specifically, a jewel of gold richly wrought in the metal itself without the aid of precious stones. See bijouterie.
- n. Hence2. An object of beauty of small size; something delicately pretty; any relatively small charming object.
Wiktionary
- n. jewel
- n. a piece of jewelry, a trinket
- n. a small intricately made metalworking
- adj. of a residence small and elegant
- adj. intricate; finely made
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A trinket; a jewel; -- a word applied to anything small and of elegant workmanship.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small and delicately worked piece
Etymologies
- From French bijou (Wiktionary)
- French, from Breton bizou, jeweled ring, from biz, finger. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“(My Petit Robert on CD-ROM allows searches by all entry fields by which I think I discovered that "bijou" is from Breton.)”
“Egbert Dormer did not turn out from his hand so much work as some men that I know, but he was overflowing with art up to his ears — and with tobacco, so that, upon the whole, the bijou was a pleasant rendezvous.”
“Egbert Dormer did not turn out from his hand so much work as some men that I know, but he was overflowing with art up to his ears -- and with tobacco, so that, upon the whole, the bijou was a pleasant rendezvous.”
“The bijou, that is now missing one diamond, is estimated to sell for between $US300,000 ($307,000) to $US500,000 ($511,000) at the auction, set for December 15-17.”
“It houses not only a flat-screen television, DVD player, reclining leather armchair, capacious bookshelves and an L-shaped execu-desk, but also a loo and what an estate agent might call a bijou kitchenette.”
“My cottage is what estate agents used to call 'bijou'.”
“It is now wall to wall marina with one 'bijou' corner' being reserved for the new BBC premises pete”
“My Petit Robert on CD-ROM allows searches by all entry fields by which I think I discovered that "bijou" is from Breton.”
“From this kind of bijou made with human hair, to these chocolate nipples to these intra-toe candies that your lover is supposed to suck from your toes.”
“The cottage was tiny -- "bijou," the estate agents would probably have called it -- and there was an ever-present danger of tumbling over the furniture.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bijou’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Sue's favorite words
panache, flair, pantaloons, periwinkle, pumpernickel, persnickety, cachet, coquette, élan, iris, ambrosia, keen and 99 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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pretty dots all in a row
polka dotted words
hijack, jinx, jingle, beijing, jive, jilted, jittery, jill, hijab, haji, hajj, hijinks and 149 more...
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harmonygritz's Cross Words
Words discovered while doing puzzles. Includes puns, e.g. taper vs. tapir.
hodad, hart, avocet, cahier, blackbird, brace, fetor, Bren, Rialto, bijou, liveried, stentor and 64 more...
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Franco
fin-de-siècle, sang-froid, minatory, loup, son et lumière, bonhomie, l'heure bleue, frippery, pamplemousse, adieu, au revoir, visage and 22 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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dirtysnowflake's Words
snowflake, parisian, couture, mystery, ruby, clandestine, corset, october, list, touch, caress, aboulia and 156 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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Size Matters!
The long and the short of it.
gargantuan, small-minded, infinitesimal, dinky, microscopy, innumerable, slew, surfeit, behemoth, bijou, critical mass, whopping and 8 more...
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April 2010
first list of words
miscegenation, anodyne, anomie, anthropomorphic, apotheosis, bijou, bumptious, causality, contrarian, dystopia, ephemera, exemplary and 9 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bijou.
aequoria Yes, it's French. It comes from the Breton word bizou "(jewelled) ring" from bez "finger". Early known documented usage in English is dated 1668. Dec 7, 2008
she Also French, 'jewel' Jul 15, 2008