Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young woman making a formal debut into society.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A woman appearing for the first time before the public or in society; specifically, an actress or a singer making her first appearance in public, or a young woman during her first season in society.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A young woman making her first appearance in society, especially one who is one of the honorees at a debutante cotillion. See cotillion{4}.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a young woman who makes her first formal appearance in society

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a young woman making her debut into society

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French débutante, feminine present participle of débuter, to begin; see debut.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word debutante.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • See deb

    February 6, 2008

  • deb's French aunt

    March 20, 2011

  • *snort*

    March 20, 2011