Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In the Low Countries and in French Flanders, an annual fair and festival of a town or commune, characterized by feasting, dancing, grotesque processions, target-shooting, and other forms of amusement, which at one time reached a licentious extravagance.
- noun A kind of entertainment, usually given for charitable purposes, in which the costumes and sports of the Flemish kermess are imitated.
Etymologies
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Examples
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She sat down, her face turned toward the windows so that she could see all the merry-makers on their way from the village to the kermess and hear their gay talk.
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The insolent wench looked at her derisively, and called out, "That will give you a good appetite for the kermess, Miss Prude."
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"Had it anything to do with the society for which Monsieur Desvanneaux asked me to appear in a kermess?"
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In the movement and the noise of the kermess she said:
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Most of the inhabitants, with the exception of the children and decrepit old people, were more than four miles away at the kermess.
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"Do you guarantee the solvency of this person?" demanded M. Desvanneaux, who saw the project of the kermess falling to the ground.
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But the curtain rose on the kermess scene and Richard made a sign to the stage-manager to go away.
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In the movement and the noise of the kermess she said:
The Red Lily — Complete Anatole France 1884
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"Do you guarantee the solvency of this person?" demanded M. Desvanneaux, who saw the project of the kermess falling to the ground.
Zibeline — Volume 2 Philippe Massa 1871
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"Had it anything to do with the society for which Monsieur Desvanneaux asked me to appear in a kermess?"
Zibeline — Volume 2 Philippe Massa 1871
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