"affreux" meaning in English

See affreux in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more affreux [comparative], most affreux [superlative]
Etymology: From French affreux. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|fr|affreux}} French affreux Head templates: {{en-adj}} affreux (comparative more affreux, superlative most affreux)
  1. (rare) Dreadful; disturbing or frightening. Tags: rare
    Sense id: en-affreux-en-adj-X4ajUJyY Categories (other): Pages with 3 entries Disambiguation of Pages with 3 entries: 11 42 37 10 0

Noun

Etymology: From French affreux. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|fr|affreux}} French affreux Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} affreux pl (plural only)
  1. A group of particularly brutal mercenaries who were active in Africa and Asia during the 1960s. Tags: plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-affreux-en-noun-YdufceAx Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum, Pages with 3 entries, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 80 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 19 81 Disambiguation of Pages with 3 entries: 11 42 37 10 0 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 8 42 44 7 0
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          "ref": "1972, Jean-Claude Willame, Patrimonialism and Political Change in the Congo, →ISBN, page 74:",
          "text": "As one Belgian journalist wrote: The affreux [\"frightful ones\"] are outstanding in combat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, John Sturrock, The Word from Paris: Essays on Modern French Thinkers and Writers, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I could no longer find anything affected in that long smooth white face but an extreme kindness and a sort of obstinate candour; Vian was as Herv in his detestation of the affreux [the frightful ones] as in loving what he loved.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
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          "ref": "2003, Máire O'Brien, The same age as the state, page 249:",
          "text": "These were mostly, but not exclusively, members of the Baluba tribe and had fled the persecution of Munongo's mercenary affreux and their black rank-and-file.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Martin Windrow, Our Friends Beneath the Sands, →ISBN:",
          "text": "It takes a rather wilful ignorance to refuse to recognize the essential difference between, say, the affreux of mid-twentieth-century Africa and the Royal Gurkha Rifles, though both could loosely be described as mercenaries.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Joseph Finder, The Zero Hour, →ISBN:",
          "text": "He had once been one of the dreaded affreux, the “frightful ones,” the white freelance soldiers who helped keep dictators in power throughout Africa and Asia.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Tor Sellström, Africa in the Indian Ocean: Islands in Ebb and Flow, →ISBN, page 169:",
          "text": "France's return to Comoros was, above all, conspicuous through the actions of the mercenary leader Bob Denard and his team of affreux ('dreadful').",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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          "ref": "1830, The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repertory:",
          "text": "And when I signified my intention of making a tour of the whole province, they most earnestly advised me to alter my plans, and occupy my time in visiting some other part of the kingdom; for they assured me, that all travellers who attempted Basse Bretagne, returned in disgust before they went more thant a few stages into the country, for that its general aspect was that of desolation itself; the roads were impassable ; and the people dirty, ragged barbarians, living in filthy huts, and clothed in sheepskins; that, in short, everything was affreux.",
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          "ref": "1834, The London Quarterly Review - Issues 103-106, page 141:",
          "text": "It was in rain that some common friends represented the tort affreux — the frightful mischief he would do the government of his own creation, if he published this work — all in vain: his honor, his conscience, and his patriotism, required that he should raise his voice in defence of the charter, which the king and his ministers equally violate — and the work is published!",
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          "text": "Orpheus calls the sound 'affreux'; the examiners may have agreed.",
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          "text": "No doubt they would be talking about the affreux – dreadful – Germans. Not so affreux, of course, that one refused to get rich off them.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Elizabeth Musser, Two Testaments: A Novel, →ISBN, page 300:",
          "text": "As soon as they were in the courtyard, she whispered, “M. Hoffmann has just appeared looking affreux. And he brought with him his father of all things!”",
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          "ref": "1998, John Sturrock, The Word from Paris: Essays on Modern French Thinkers and Writers, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I could no longer find anything affected in that long smooth white face but an extreme kindness and a sort of obstinate candour; Vian was as Herv in his detestation of the affreux [the frightful ones] as in loving what he loved.",
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          "ref": "2003, Máire O'Brien, The same age as the state, page 249:",
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          "ref": "2010, Martin Windrow, Our Friends Beneath the Sands, →ISBN:",
          "text": "It takes a rather wilful ignorance to refuse to recognize the essential difference between, say, the affreux of mid-twentieth-century Africa and the Royal Gurkha Rifles, though both could loosely be described as mercenaries.",
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        },
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          "ref": "2014, Joseph Finder, The Zero Hour, →ISBN:",
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        },
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          "ref": "2015, Tor Sellström, Africa in the Indian Ocean: Islands in Ebb and Flow, →ISBN, page 169:",
          "text": "France's return to Comoros was, above all, conspicuous through the actions of the mercenary leader Bob Denard and his team of affreux ('dreadful').",
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          "text": "And when I signified my intention of making a tour of the whole province, they most earnestly advised me to alter my plans, and occupy my time in visiting some other part of the kingdom; for they assured me, that all travellers who attempted Basse Bretagne, returned in disgust before they went more thant a few stages into the country, for that its general aspect was that of desolation itself; the roads were impassable ; and the people dirty, ragged barbarians, living in filthy huts, and clothed in sheepskins; that, in short, everything was affreux.",
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          "text": "It was in rain that some common friends represented the tort affreux — the frightful mischief he would do the government of his own creation, if he published this work — all in vain: his honor, his conscience, and his patriotism, required that he should raise his voice in defence of the charter, which the king and his ministers equally violate — and the work is published!",
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        },
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          "ref": "2012, Elizabeth Musser, Two Testaments: A Novel, →ISBN, page 300:",
          "text": "As soon as they were in the courtyard, she whispered, “M. Hoffmann has just appeared looking affreux. And he brought with him his father of all things!”",
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Download raw JSONL data for affreux meaning in English (5.4kB)

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  "section": "English",
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  "title": "affreux",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (05fdf6b and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.