Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In French usage, a member of the demi-monde.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun In France, a name for a woman who is supported by her lovers, and devotes herself to idleness, show, and pleasure; -- so called from the church of Notre Dame de Lorette, in Paris, near which many of them resided.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun dated A woman of low
morals , especially associated with the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette district of Paris.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But he presented Fabien du Ronceret to her and the "lorette" married him.
Repertory of the Comedie Humaine Part 1 Anatole Cerfberr 1865
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Stepping ashore, you see a long line of carriages drawn up in several rows, and of every conceivable variety -- from the Turkish araba to the most coquettish-looking Parisian coupé -- gilded and adorned in a style to make a French lorette stare with amazement at a lavishness of expenditure exceeding her own.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 25, April, 1873 Various
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Aurore's mother seems to us, du reste, the perfect type of a Parisian lorette, the sort of woman so keenly attractive with the bloom of youth and the eloquence of passion, -- but when these have passed their day, the most detestable of mistresses, the most undesirable of companions.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 49, November, 1861 Various
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Punk or bona roba, lorette or drab -- put her before an artist in letters, and, lo and behold ye! such is the strange allure emanating from the hussy, that the resultant portrait is either that of a martyred Magdalene, or, at the very least, has all the enigmatic piquancy of a Monna Lisa ...
Yama: the pit Bernard Guilbert Guerney 1904
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There was never a _lorette_ who did not love to gamble.
Bohemian Days Three American Tales George Alfred Townsend 1877
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There were the dying glances of the lorette in the hospital, the pose of the old copyist of the Louvre, and the theatrical sneer.
Ten Tales Fran��ois Copp��e 1875
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I was still hesitating what to do when suddenly, sharp as the clash of steel on steel, the voice of a street lorette reached my ear.
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SINET (Seraphine), a celebrated lorette, born in 1820, known by the sobriquet of Carabine, was present at Josepha Mirah's house-warming on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque, in 1838.
Repertory of the Comedie Humaine Part 2 Anatole Cerfberr 1865
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The bal Mabile is not the polymnia dance of the Janiculum, but the dealer in ladies 'wearing apparel there devours the lorette with her eyes, exactly as the procuress Staphyla lay in wait for the virgin Planesium.
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Thus far her pride -- and it was very great -- had procured for her the respect and consideration which is bestowed, in the lorette quarters, upon a servant who honestly serves a virtuous mistress.
Germinie Lacerteux Edmond de Goncourt 1859
minouchette commented on the word lorette
In France, a name for a woman who is supported by her lovers, and devotes herself to idleness, show, and pleasure; -- so called from the church of Notre Dame de Lorette, in Paris, near which many of them resided.
October 8, 2010
qms commented on the word lorette
Be careful, insouciant Babette!
You’re pleased now to play the coquette,
But many a flirt
Has lifted her skirt
To trip down the stairs to lorette.
February 20, 2019