Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A French working-class girl or young woman.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Originally, a sort of gray woolen fabric, much used for dresses by women of the lower classes in France: so called from its gray color. Hence —2. A young woman of the working class; especially, a young woman employed as a shopgirl, a sewing girl, or a chambermaid: commonly applied by foreigners in Paris to the young women of this class who are free in their manners on the streets or in the shops.
- noun The noctuid moth Acronycta strigosa: an English collectors' name.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A French girl or young married woman of the lower class; more frequently, a young working woman who is fond of gallantry.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A French girl or young married woman of the lower class; especially, a young working-class woman of perceived easy morals.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word grisette.
Examples
-
Paris student, than any with which a foreigner could furnish him: the grisette is his heroine; and dear old Béranger, the cynic-epicurean, has celebrated him and her in the most delightful verses in the world.
-
The grisette is a gay, chattering bird, which at fifteen escapes from the nest never to return; it is not her custom to drag about a mother after her, this is the special mania of actresses who resort to all sorts of tricks ignored by the proud and independent grisette.
The Cross of Berny Jules Sandeau 1847
-
The grisette is the Andalouse of Paris; she possesses the talent of being able to pass through the mire of Lutetia on tiptoe, like a dancer who studies her steps, without soiling her white stockings with a single speck of mud.
The Cross of Berny Jules Sandeau 1847
-
This passage, with which we have taken some liberties, will give the reader a more lively idea of the reckless, jovial, turbulent Paris student, than any with which a foreigner could furnish him: the grisette is his heroine; and dear old Béranger, the cynic-epicurean, has celebrated him and her in the most delightful verses in the world.
The Paris Sketch Book William Makepeace Thackeray 1837
-
Monsieur Dorlange has given me in my bust the air of a grisette, which is not true at all.
The Deputy of Arcis Honor�� de Balzac 1824
-
The very terms "grisette" and "lorette" by which young women unblest with wealth or social rank are commonly designated, involve the idea of demoralization -- no man would apply them to one whom he respected and of whose good opinion he was solicitous.
Glances at Europe In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. Horace Greeley 1841
-
Higher than a street prostitute or a fille libre but lower than the legendary grandes horizontales , lionesses and amazons , Chanel was a grisette , "the young milliner, glover or seamstress . . . who often took lovers to boost their pitiful earnings."
The Enduring Coco Chanel Laura Jacobs 2011
-
A face that must have once had the graceful, delicate beauty of a grisette, with "a youthful glow" that passes quickly, but which still retained her extremely pretty, cheerful, kindly, heart - shaped mouth.
-
The first grisette who had said to him: “You are handsome!” had cast the stain of darkness into his heart, and had made a Cain of this Abel.
Les Miserables 2008
-
He is an honorable idler who lounges, who practises country jaunts, who cultivates the grisette, who pays court to the fair sex, who is at this very moment, perhaps, with my mistress.
Les Miserables 2008
whichbe commented on the word grisette
Young working girl.
May 16, 2008
chelster commented on the word grisette
Cf. lorette.
April 5, 2011
YeOldeWorde commented on the word grisette
If you want an example of a grisette, think about Fantine from Les Miserables.
March 20, 2012