Meaning of petit maître | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A fop or dandy.
   archaic
2. A lesser master of something, especially of some artistic skill; a minor talent.
   derogatory

Equivalents

Examples

“The unfortunate petit maitre, driven to the extremity of his condescension, acknowledged it to be a masterly refinement […].”

“Monstrous critical overkill of an even more up-market kind has transformed the Argentinian petit maître, Borges, into one of the Great Writers of our Time and his most recent collection, The Book of Sand […] shows signs that he is content humbly to acquiesce in this opinion.”

“The point of this survey is to present Calder as a giant of modernism instead of a petit-maître of whimsical toys.”

CEFR level