Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An outdoor fair in the Low Countries.
- noun A fundraising fair or carnival.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative form of
kirmess .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word kermis.
Examples
-
African might and did obtain a freehold; while the Negro who remained under an institution of patriarchal simplicity, scarcely knowing he was in bondage, danced merrily at the best, in "kermis," at Christmas and Pinckster. [
History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens George W. Williams 1870
-
Yesterday one of the secretaries asked one of the Dutch PhD students, in Dutch, what the English word for kermis was, and I immediately said “carnival”.
-
Yesterday one of the secretaries asked one of the Dutch PhD students, in Dutch, what the English word for kermis was, and I immediately said “carnival”.
-
In Eindhoven, the kermis Park Hilaria was on the street bordering the uni here.
-
They spent a riotous afternoon; there was a small kermis, a fair, tucked away behind the main street and the three of them tried each one of its attractions, and when they were tired of that, wandered round the booths.
Grasp A Nettle Neels, Betty 1977
-
Returning to Middelburg from Flushing one evening, in the steam-tram, we found ourselves in a compartment filled with happy country people, most of them making for the kermis, then in full swing in the Middelburg market place.
-
The Middelburg kermis is a particularly merry one.
-
The lad takes his girl about everywhere; they go to the _kermis_, skate, and amuse themselves, and no one troubles or inquires about them.
-
Flushing does little to amuse its visitors after the sun has left the sea; and we were very glad of the excuse offered by the Middelburg kermis to return to our inland city each afternoon.
-
It was very late at night when we went to rest in a kermis bed, as it is called, [118] in the corner of the hearth, along side of a good fire.
Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 Jasper Danckaerts 1898
qms commented on the word kermis
The Dutch boy who covets her kiss
Must patiently defer his bliss
Until annual revels
Unleash the devils
When all is allowed at kermis.
July 6, 2015