Definitions

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

  • noun A woman belonging to the demimonde.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A member of the demi-monde.

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

  • noun A sexually promiscuous woman (of the demimonde)

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

  • noun a woman whose sexual promiscuity places her outside respectable society

Etymologies

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

[French, from demi-monde, demimonde; see demimonde.]

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Examples

  • Valérie Larbin was what the chroniclers of society—or their putative sons, the social novelists—would have called a demimondaine.

    Valfierno Martín Caparrós 2008

  • Valérie Larbin was what the chroniclers of society—or their putative sons, the social novelists—would have called a demimondaine.

    Valfierno Martín Caparrós 2008

  • 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.

    When Words Go Lightly to Screen 2010

  • 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).

    Erica Abeel: The Cheatin' Heart of Cheri 2009

  • 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 2009

  • 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.

    France's Courtesan Queen Returns to the Silver Screen 2009

  • 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 2007

  • 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.

    Phoenix And Ashes Lackey, Mercedes 2004

  • 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.

    Hearts STEF ANN HOLM 2001

  • 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.

    Hearts STEF ANN HOLM 2001

Comments

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  • a class of women on the fringes of respectable society supported by wealthy lovers (usually each had several).

    October 11, 2008

  • Similar in meaning to demirep , but sexually more adventurous, perhaps.

    July 18, 2012

  • "'I was greeted by "The Oregon Mare," a nickname applied to a very handsome woman who was a well-known Dawson demimondaine.'"

    --Lael Morgan, Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush (Fairbanks, Alaska and Seattle: Epicenter Press, 1998), p. 299

    January 31, 2017