"enfant terrible" meaning in English

See enfant terrible in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-us-enfant terrible.oga [US] Forms: enfants terribles [plural]
Etymology: Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”). Etymology templates: {{ubor|en|fr|enfant terrible|lit=terrible child}} Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”) Head templates: {{en-noun|enfants terribles|nolinkhead=1}} enfant terrible (plural enfants terribles)
  1. An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others. Synonyms: terrible infant Related terms: bad boy Translations (unconventional badly-behaved person): 頑童 (Chinese Mandarin), 顽童 (wántóng) (Chinese Mandarin), 淘氣鬼 (Chinese Mandarin), 淘气鬼 (táoqìguǐ) (Chinese Mandarin), enfant terrible [neuter] (Dutch), kauhukakara (Finnish), enfant terrible [masculine] (French), Enfant terrible [neuter] (German), アンファンテリブル (anfan teriburu) (Japanese), анфа́н-терри́бль (anfán-terríblʹ) [masculine] (Russian), несно́сный челове́к (nesnósnyj čelovék) [masculine] (Russian), niño terrible [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-enfant_terrible-en-noun-jrZ3JWE9 Disambiguation of 'unconventional badly-behaved person': 79 19 1
  2. An unusually successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde.
    Sense id: en-enfant_terrible-en-noun-Ue~0UAjO
  3. (obsolete, literally) A wild child. Tags: literally, obsolete
    Sense id: en-enfant_terrible-en-noun-3eJjjW9F Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 29 15 56

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for enfant terrible meaning in English (5.0kB)

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        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
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      "name": "ubor"
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  "etymology_text": "Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”).",
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        {
          "ref": "2010, Peter Coleman, Quadrant, March 2010, No. 464 (Volume LIV, Number 3), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 86",
          "text": "He was soon the talk of the town, the enfant terrible of our little world."
        }
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        "An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others."
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      "id": "en-enfant_terrible-en-noun-jrZ3JWE9",
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          "_dis1": "77 23 0",
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          "_dis1": "67 33 0",
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
          "word": "頑童"
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "nl",
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
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          "code": "fr",
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          "word": "enfant terrible"
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "de",
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          "word": "Enfant terrible"
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          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "ja",
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          "roman": "anfan teriburu",
          "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
          "word": "アンファンテリブル"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "ru",
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          "roman": "anfán-terríblʹ",
          "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
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          "word": "анфа́н-терри́бль"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "nesnósnyj čelovék",
          "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "несно́сный челове́к"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "79 19 1",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "niño terrible"
        }
      ]
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          "ref": "1918, Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams",
          "text": "Diplomatists have no right to complain of mere lies; it is their own fault, if, educated as they are, the lies deceive them; but they complain bitterly of traps. Palmerston was believed to lay traps. He was the enfant terrible of the British Government.",
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          "ref": "2023 March 28, Philip Oltermann, “Michel Houellebecq sex film to be released despite attempt to stop it”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
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        }
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      "word": "terrible infant"
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    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "word": "頑童"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "wántóng",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "word": "顽童"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "word": "淘氣鬼"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "táoqìguǐ",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "word": "淘气鬼"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "enfant terrible"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "word": "kauhukakara"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "enfant terrible"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Enfant terrible"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "anfan teriburu",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "word": "アンファンテリブル"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "anfán-terríblʹ",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "анфа́н-терри́бль"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "nesnósnyj čelovék",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "несно́сный челове́к"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "unconventional badly-behaved person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "niño terrible"
    }
  ],
  "word": "enfant terrible"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). 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.

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