Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who lives in a pension; a boarder.
  • noun One who receives a pension.
  • noun One of the two classes of actors at the Comédie Française, engaged yearly at a fixed salary and, after a certain number of years as a probationer, nominated and usually admitted sociétaire (which see).

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In 1838 she signed a contract as a pensionnaire at the most prestigious institution of the French stage, the Comédie Française, the official state theater where Samson himself was an actor.

    Rachel (Eliza Rachel Felix). 2009

  • Aurelia and Adele were in the first division of the second class; the second division was headed by a pensionnaire named

    The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte 2006

  • J'y avais été pensionnaire au début des années cinquante!

    Fresques italiennes/Italian frescoes Oleg Kuzin 2006

  • J'y avais été pensionnaire au début des années cinquante!

    Archive 2006-06-01 Oleg Kuzin 2006

  • Milly proceeds to an admirable French school, as a pensionnaire, and leaves this on Thursday next.

    Uncle Silas 2003

  • “Mademoiselle, you know little of me; I can be embarrassed as a petite pensionnaire; there is a fund of modesty and diffidence in my nature —”

    Villette 2003

  • “Pardon, Mademoiselle,” said a pensionnaire, entering gently; and having taken from her desk some necessary book or paper, she withdrew on tip-toe, murmuring as she passed me,

    Villette 2003

  • A pensionnaire, to whom I had rendered some little service, exclaimed one day as she sat beside me: “Mademoiselle, what a pity you are a Protestant!”

    Villette 2003

  • 'There is a French pensionnaire staying here, the same as I am.

    Letters to His Friends Forbes Robinson

  • She was immediately admitted _pensionnaire_, and at the end of eighteen months unanimously elected _sociétaire_.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various

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