Meaning of débonnaire | Babel Free

Definitions

Alternative spelling of debonair.

alt-of, alternative

Equivalents

Examples

“I look⟳ up, and discern him perched in a cherry-tree, chanting loud in the innocent lightness of his spirits, and greeting me with a débonnaire ‘Bonjour, mademoiselle.’”

“Why, poor Jules was a débonnaire young fellow like⟳ me the other day,—peaceable, laborious; […]”

“He explains in a débonnaire way the motive of his intrusion. […] The amount is eleven hundred and odd pounds, and in the event of Mrs. Westray not being ready to pay⟳ that sum, the débonnaire gentleman is hero to take⟳ possession of the aforesaid furniture by his minion, the man with the sleek hat.”

“He went off to the mills as he spoke, walking with quite a débonnaire manner, for he knew she was watching him from the window.”

““Oh,” said the other, in a débonnaire manner, “he’s no heart.[…]””

““So do I, dear,” confessed Lady Flashe, a well-known society hostess who looked a débonnaire five-and-twenty, whilst a pitiless “Peerage” chronicled her age at forty-three.”

“With a splendid effort of self-control, Eustace assumed a débonnaire manner.”

“As I turned away, heart-broken and in tears, a tall, stately, robust gentlemen came, I must not say⟳ swaggering, but lounging in, with a débonnaire grace, as if the place⟳ belonged to him—as indeed it did, for it was Charles Kemble himself!”

“As a matter⟳ of history, some of the rapidest men in the University were not vicious, if scarcely paragons of virtue, while not a few combined with high spirits and a débonnaire disposition considerable brain power.”

“The Frenchman, moreover, in a much greater degree than the men or women of other nationalities, is possessed of a débonnaire self-confidence which has played so great a part in the history and literature of France that it is impossible to pass⟳ it over in silence.”

“It is quite likely that a débonnaire and handsome man of fifty-something should be captivated by her charm of manner, for is she not Miss⟳ [Ethel] Irving?”

“It seems that her mother was a very great lady before her marriage with a débonnaire young adventurer outside the charmed circle and that this lady mother taught her instead of sending her to school.”

“As he swerved slightly to miss⟳ us, he intrusted his life—and ours—to one of his hands, while with the other he gave us a débonnaire salute.”

“The venerable theme of a husband and wife gone emotionally stale and advised by a débonnaire Charles Hawtrey to try⟳ divorce as a means of regaining their lost taste⟳ for each other was here laboriously deleted of its original virtues, given a fricassee of meek epigrams, and served up by a company of actors who toed the footlights like⟳ so many champing distance runners and suddenly let⟳ go each of their lines as if on pistol cues.”

“With a remonstrance in every finger[-]tip⟳, a débonnaire Frenchman was laughingly upbraiding his fellow for giving him bad advice.”

“He made an uncertain halt, a débonnaire figure⟳, twirling his folded pince-nez by its silken lanyard, well-pleased with himself and indifferent if all the world knew it.”

““I guess⟳ the warm weather makes the sap run⟳,” remarked a débonnaire police chief while surveying the weekend quota of vandalism in an eastern town.”

“It was a débonnaire crowd that followed Raoul that Christmas eve, a crowd who thought no prank too wild to play⟳ on an unsuspecting community, and whose sole aim seemed to be to get⟳ out of life all the fun that could be extracted without any thought of the consequences.”

CEFR level