Definitions

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

  • adjective (used of noses) turned up at the end

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

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

Examples

  • She wasn't handsome, but she certainly was pretty, even though her nose was retrousse, which is French for pug.

    Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 13 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers Elbert Hubbard 1885

  • Miss Anderson, who claimed a collateral Dutch ancestry by the Van Hook, tucked in between her non-committal family name and the Julia given her in christening, was of the ordinary slender make of American girlhood, with dull blond hair, and a dull blond complexion, which would have left her face uninteresting if it had not been for the caprice of her nose in suddenly changing from the ordinary American regularity, after getting over its bridge, and turning out distinctly 'retrousse'.

    April Hopes William Dean Howells 1878

  • She was twenty-four years old and pretty, with wide blue eyes, a retrousse nose and a gently curving mouth; she wore her bright blonde hair -- the envy of her friends -- in a complicated knot on top of her head, and her person was small, so that she looked extremely fragile.

    Politics 101 2010

  • Obama is a stuffed-shirt, retrousse-nosed, po 'boy, the worst kind of elitist!

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • Nose jobs have really come down in price, nowadays, and Brunette could be stunning with one of those cute retrousse noses.

    Bloggingheads! Ann Althouse 2007

  • Nose jobs have really come down in price, nowadays, and Brunette could be stunning with one of those cute retrousse noses.

    Bloggingheads! Ann Althouse 2007

  • You cannot tell whether her nose was aquiline or retrousse, whether her chin was long or short, her face square or oval; nor could I the first day, and it is not my intention to communicate to you at once a knowledge I myself gained by little and little.

    The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte 2006

  • His nose was short and retrousse, and his ears were rather prominent; but he was bright and attractive.

    The Financier 2004

  • Yet with him he had brought neither wallet nor gripsack, and somehow his supercilious, retrousse upper lip and thickly fringed eyes irritated me, and inclined me to be suspicious of, and even actively to dislike, the man.

    Through Russia 2003

  • Two sons, one of whom was already in the service, and a good-looking, sixteen-year-old daughter, with a rather retrousse but pretty little nose, came every morning to kiss his hand and say, “Bonjour, papa.”

    The Cloak 2003

Comments

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

  • "Mlle. Ayers is a horsey creature of seventeen with her mama's retrousse nose" (Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 051.3).

    January 24, 2010

  • Useful word, this. Much more appropriate-sounding than "turned-up" or "piggish."

    January 24, 2010

  • See retroussé.

    November 19, 2010