Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of questionable taste or morality; decadent: "The rebuilt [Moscow hotel] is home to the flashy, louche Western disco Manhattan Express” ( Liesl Schillinger).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Squinting; not straightforward; sinister.
Wiktionary
- adj. of questionable taste or morality; decadent
- adj. not reputable or decent
- v. To become cloudy when mixed with water, due to the presence of anethole. This is known as the ouzo effect.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. of questionable taste, decency, or morality; not reputable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of questionable taste or morality
Etymologies
- French, from Old French losche, squint-eyed, feminine of lois, from Latin luscus, blind in one eye.
Examples
“For instance, on Monday you may get the word "louche," learning that it means "of questionable character; dubious, disreputable.”
“It looks from the outside like the term louche, as applied to absinthe, comes from a reference to the whitening eye of cataract, but the French dictionary carries all three meanings: squinty, dissolute, and cloudy.”
“Her work has been described as louche what a lovely sounding word and provocative.”
“Interestingly, both of these are considerably paler in color than typical French and Swiss absinthes but they do produce the well known "louche" or milky colored opalescence when water is added.”
“The word "louche", for example, now means "Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.”
“Overall effect, presumably as intended, was kind of louche and libertarian.”
“That kind of louche, qiana-flavored 1970s attitude is becoming ever more attractive as we head into a sweater-wearing, oil-crisis-flavored 1970s deflationary malaise ... and Jeremy from HotPatterns offered me a copy of this pattern, too!”
“I had moved my scant wardrobe into one of the rooms in the female section of International House and on my first day found a kind of louche society there, or so it might have seemed to an outsider.”
Borrowed Finery, A Memoir
“I’ve always wondered why the word louche often ends up in stories about contemporary culture, and now I know I can blame Maureen Dowd.”
“Led Zeppelin band members roamed the corridors on motorcycle and where a constellation of young stars has taken indefinite residence as a kind of louche rite of passage over the years”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘louche’.
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 563 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 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 1073 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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the best words in french
it doesn't matter if you can speak french or not to add the word. you can add it for the way it sounds or what it means. it can only be one word. if you add it for what it means, comment on the lis...
pamplemousse, adieu, au revoir, visage, thé, louche, odalisque, perdu, absintheur, glibette, hibou, pommadeur and 9 more...
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Vocab
goat rodeo, fardel, quotidian, deportment, opprobrium, deracinated, inculcate, desultory, orotund, chivvy, diktat, casuistry and 24 more...
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adjectives
amort, propense, aguish, seclusive, pokerish, horrent, stem-winding, indign, obzocky, abnormous, fallow, dividuous and 39 more...
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Character traits
Falstaffian, drumble, despond, grotesque, élan, anile, feal, smart aleck, phat, blowsy, haver, hoary and 18 more...
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Fun fancy French words
Fun fancy French words to wield, impress and sound pretentious with
raison d etre, garçonnière, recherché, bisous, soigne, apercu, decharne, outre, oubliette, soi disant, mot juste, louche and 4 more...
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bestiary
agave, incunable, echt, wissenschaft, friscalating, obsolescence, clavier, yajna, ecstatic, casual, protean, hum and 41 more...
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Excess
Excess
licentiousness, crapulence, vomit, mausoleum, fit to kill, libation, decadent, superfluous, louche
Casey "In the tea-houses and bars of Salacus Fields, Lin's escapades--broadly hinted at, never denied, never made explicit--would be the subject of louche discussion and innuendo." From Perdido Street Station by China Meiville. Sep 18, 2011
brainstem Mmm: "As you slowly add water, the liquid in the glass seems to thicken, and transforms into an opalescent pastel cloud. The French call this effect the louche (which has the wonderful double meaning of turbulent in French and disreputable in English). Technically, when absinthe is distilled, the anise and fennel oils dissolve into the alcohol. As the water dilutes the alcohol, it frees the oils from their molecular prison, and they form a cloudy suspension."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/dining/reviews/13wine.html Feb 21, 2010
hernesheir Milky opalescence that results from dripping sugary ice water into absinthe or other spirits flavored with wormwood, anise or fennel. Feb 2, 2010
cutlery "Might she see in me a louche English freeloader down on his luck, here to lure her sickly father into a glorious Indian summer where she can't follow and isn't welcome?" (Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 051.3). Jan 24, 2010
rolig Immoral, disreputable, decadent – none of these capture that sleazy yet elegant and brazenly androgynous seductiveness that is at the essence of louche. For me the embodiment of louche (and this is a word that demands to be written in italics, for no other reason than it can't be bothered to stand up straight) is the character "Joel Cairo" in The Maltese Falcon as played by the peerless Peter Lorre, an actor who almost always played louche. Aug 18, 2008
devans00 Seems like it should be a dirty word, but it also sounds like slurring after too much to drink. I bet there's a lot of spitting involved with this word.
Definitions: of questionable taste or morality
lacking respectability in character or behavior or appearance
Of questionable taste or morality; decadent
Synonyms: shady
Related terms: Similar to disreputable
French, from Old French losche, squint-eyed, feminine of lois, from Latin luscus, blind in one eye.
Dictionary definition of louche Aug 18, 2008
rookinherrookery Louche is my mom's favorite word. It's even her license plate. Hilariously inapt for her sweet self. Jun 23, 2008