canaille

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"But they are the same sort of ruffians as those who destroyed the Bastile The news of that event had a short time before reached us Now let us return to the watch-tower, and try to make out what the canaille are about The mob, as far as we could observe, were not as yet approaching.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The masses of the people; the proletariat.
  2. noun Rabble; riffraff.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Somers wrote bitterly to friends who had been all-influential till lately, but whom the canaille were now trying to taint also. —  Lawrence - Kangaroo
  • With the growth of political equality the aristocracy had become more insistent upon the privilege of birth, which could not be taken from them; and for a Claudius to descend among the canaille was as if a Howard were to seek adoption from a shopkeeper in the Strand. —  Caesar: A Sketch
  • By the way, are "canaille" and "canard" in the French list? —  Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]
  • "But they are the same sort of ruffians as those who destroyed the Bastile The news of that event had a short time before reached us Now let us return to the watch-tower, and try to make out what the canaille are about The mob, as far as we could observe, were not as yet approaching. —  Paddy Finn
  • The fellow affects a most dignified contempt for the canaille, because, in truth, they never invite him to dinner--is on the free list of all the theatres, from having formerly been freely hiss'd upon their boards--a retired tragedy king on a small pension, with a republican stomach, who still enacts the starved apothecary at home, from penury, and liberally crams his voracious paunch, stuffing like Father Paul, when at the table of others. —  The English Spy An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous. Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The Life
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Italian canaglia, pack of dogs, rabble, from cane, dog, from Latin canis; see kwon- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French canaille, from Italian canaglia (= Spanish canalla= Portuguese canalha), rabble, properly and orig. a pack of dogs, from cane = Portuguese cão = Spanish can (obsolete) = French chien, from Latin canis, a dog: see Canis, and cf. kennel, a doublet of canaille.
 

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/kæˈneɪl/
by American Heritage

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