Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A woman belonging to the demimonde.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A member of the demi-monde.
Wiktionary
- n. A sexually promiscuous woman (of the demimonde)
WordNet 3.0
- n. a woman whose sexual promiscuity places her outside respectable society
Etymologies
- French, from demi-monde, demimonde; see demimonde. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Valérie Larbin was what the chroniclers of society—or their putative sons, the social novelists—would have called a demimondaine.”
“In an effort to sanitize Paramount's portrait of a demimondaine, the studio publicity department churned out reams of flapdoodle, defining Holly as a "kook" rather than a B-girl.”
“Adapted from Colette's eponymous novel, the film follows the affair of Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer), a retired, luscious courtesan in her fifty's, and Cheri (Rupert Friend), the exquisite, wanton son of a rival demimondaine (Kathy Bates).”
“She refused to have a life of a demimondaine (courtesan).”
Lesley M. M. Blume: Coco Before Chanel's Audrey Tautou Talks Fashion, Fury, And Smoking
“In the moralistic atmosphere of 1950s Hollywood, it was tricky to present Colette's account of the risqué demimondaine, and its glorification of the courtesans who relied on wealthy playboys and aristocrats to live in a state of opulence.”
The Wall Street Journal: France's Courtesan Queen Returns to the Silver Screen
“They certainly have one vocal demimondaine and craving consummate pandering Senator who is currently lusting for the American Presidency.”
The Democrat Demimondaine and Consummate Pandering Politician: Hillary Clinton
“Alison knew of this place from her early days as one of the demimondaine-but of course, unlike the rest of her sisters-in-sin, she'd had the means at her disposal to ensure she got a wedding ring before too long into her arrangement.”
“She viewed herself as she was sure Jake would: a twenty-five-year-old woman, grossly tall, apparently too clumsy to hold a book, and with a demimondaine petticoat contradicting a dress sewn for a much younger woman.”
“Rosemarie Nitribitt (Nina Hoss) is a Marilyn Monroe-like pretty girl in her 20's who sleeps her way into the highest circles of German industry and officialdom, but always as a demimondaine unacknowledged by high society.”
“He meets a demimondaine lady of a certain age, Mrs. Tanis Judique.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘demimondaine’.
-
Cinnamony Sea Anemones & Co.
Words full of m's and n's are a little-known cure for sadness.
aeschynomenous, monomoy, zamzummim, abdominous, abhominal, abonnement, acetaminophen, acetophenone, adenomyoma, aeronomer, agnominal, albuminimeter and 229 more...
-
Carlos' Words
monstropolous, absquatulate
triffid, calque, pinguid, refulgent, monstropolous, Seanchaí, clinquant, Chryselephantine ..., peavey, milium, swage, Burtillon, Burtil... and 263 more...
-
Useful
parkour, diegetic, callipygian, dasypygal, hypnagogic, hypnopompic, antejentacular, postprandial, perspicuity, perspicacity, föhn, traceur and 115 more...
-
New words
Words that are new to me.
autostrada, gimlet, clyster, gravida, skelped, nacreous, susurrus, intransigent, puissant, turbid, plangent, fungible and 99 more...
-
colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
-
List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
-
timrmortiss's list
compotation, deodand, lignify, obstreperous, noetic, promantia, nostrum, cynosure, sesquipedalian, callipygian, inchoate, hortatory and 93 more...
-
word set 12
plasmasphere, cockatrice, delimitable, precipitancy, trellising, thermochromism, cadenza, tentaculiferous, fluctiferous, circumambient, loblolly, trailing edge and 142 more...
-
Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 more...
-
lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 889 more...
-
Femmesque
Curious words having to do with women: positive or negative; feminine, observational, technical, weird, stupid, crass, etc. I loathe some of these words but I'm using this list as a catch-all... ev...
mittelschmerz, gynotikolobomasso..., ingenue, uxorious, hogminny, quim, suffragette, damsel, madame, parturient, testatrix, mediatrix and 188 more...
-
Ada, or Ardor ~Vladmir Nabokov
granoblastically, cicerone, aerocable, anachronistically, parvis, athwart, mnemonic, squitteroo, nusshaus, edelweiss, intermezzo, cabriole and 183 more...
-
rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
-
Time Out New York
words looked up while copyediting for this magazine
tonsorial, nudnick, doyenne, lothario, ebon, compere, cloaca, carom, evince, jocosity, profligacy, favela and 110 more...
-
word set10
superstring, nonrepudiation, sandboxed, trojan horse, bandoliers, transmutation, antiauthoritarian, connubiality, flagelliform, appellative, camphoraceous, bollixed and 61 more...
-
People
alienist, Bedouin, cicerone, demimondaine, epigone, varlet, strumpet, milquetoast, badaud, nudnik, schlemiel, maven and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for demimondaine.
michaelt42 Similar in meaning to demirep , but sexually more adventurous, perhaps. Jul 18, 2012
smrtrthnu a class of women on the fringes of respectable society supported by wealthy lovers (usually each had several). Oct 11, 2008