Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A class of women supported by wealthy lovers and considered to be promiscuous or otherwise unrespectable.
- noun Women prostitutes considered as a group.
- noun A group whose respectability is dubious:
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A term introduced by Alexandre Dumas the younger to denote (as defined by himself) that class of women who occupy an equivocal position between women of good reputation and social standing on the one hand and courtezans on the other; women of equivocal reputation and standing in society.
- noun Commonly, but less correctly, courtezans in general.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Persons of doubtful reputation; esp., women who are kept as mistresses, though not public prostitutes; demireps.
- noun writers of the lowest kind.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
class ofwomen kept bywealthy protectors ;female prostitutes as a group - noun A group having little
respect orreputation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a class of woman not considered respectable because of indiscreet or promiscuous behavior
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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The aesthetic common denominator was a "finish fetish" or "fetish finish," your choice borrowed from the southern California demimonde of hot rods and custom cars—i.e., the kind of slick, finicky attention to smooth perfection required when applying dozens of hand-rubbed coats of cherry-red enamel to an auto body.
When the West Coast Went Pop Peter Plagens 2011
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The homosexual demimonde of the 1880s and 1890s will certainly feature in some of my stories, but these aren't in any sense "gay murder mysteries."
Gyles Brandreth Answers Questions about the Oscar Wilde Mysteries 2010
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The ECB resists, and all who balk will be chastised by the monied powers and their demimonde, the ratings agencies and global banks.
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Rather than posit the voyeur -- I mean viewer -- in a demimonde of hustlers, junkies and transvestites of his classic films, in News From Nowhere Morrissey looks to the suburbs for darker lurkings, specifically the coastal town of Montauk, situated on the eastern-most point of Long Island, where the land finally ends, and gives way to a vast ocean.
Michael Vazquez: Warhol Factory Auteur Paul Morrissey Premieres News From Nowhere In-Person at Lincoln Center Tonight Michael Vazquez 2011
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And that Joe and Ratso rise above the material, taking on a reality of their own while the screenplay detours into the fashionable New York demimonde.
Favorite Film Friday: Midnight Cowboy « A Progressive on the Prairie 2010
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In 11 volumes published between 1888 and 1894, and many years later widely published in a condensed edition, the narrator's adventures in the London demimonde are narrated in such detail as ultimately to become tiresome rather than titillating.
Deborah Lutz's "Pleasure Bound," on Victorian sex rebels 2011
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Perfect blocking turned the stage's perimeters and centers into a spacious feline demimonde through which to enact a spiritual ceremony that felt like a combination of West Side Story, Woodstock, and Stonehenge.
James Scarborough: "Cats," Musical Theatre West James Scarborough 2011
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Where else but San Francisco would an underground gourmet produce market become the destination for the downtown demimonde to purchase kombucha and bergamot marmalade on their weekend nights?
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In 11 volumes published between 1888 and 1894, and many years later widely published in a condensed edition, the narrator's adventures in the London demimonde are narrated in such detail as ultimately to become tiresome rather than titillating.
Deborah Lutz's "Pleasure Bound," on Victorian sex rebels 2011
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And that Joe and Ratso rise above the material, taking on a reality of their own while the screenplay detours into the fashionable New York demimonde.
A Progressive on the Prairie » Favorite Film Friday: Midnight Cowboy » Print 2010
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