English
french
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) enPR: frĕnch, IPA: /fɹɛnt͡ʃ/, [fɹ̠ɛn̠t͡ʃ]
Verb

french (frenches, present participle frenching; past and past participle frenched)

  1. (transitive) To prepare food by cutting it into strips.
  2. (transitive) To kiss (another person) while inserting one’s tongue into the other person's mouth.
  3. (intransitive) To kiss in this manner.
  4. (cuisine) To French trim; to stylishly expose bone by removing the fat and meat covering it (as done to a rack of lamb or bone-in rib-eye steak).
Synonyms
French
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) enPR: frĕnch, IPA: /fɹɛnt͡ʃ/, /fɹɛnʃ/
Noun

french

  1. (chiefly collective & plural) The people of France; groups of French people.
    The Hundred Years' War was fought between the English and the French.
    Under the Fourth Republic, more and more French unionized.
    • 1579, Geoffrey Fenton, translating Francesco Guicciardini as The Historie of Guicciardin, p. 378:
      ...to breake the necke of the wicked purposes & plots of the French...
    • 1653, Thomas Urquhart, translating François Rabelais as Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Vol. I, p. 214:
      Such is the nature and complexion of the frenches, that they are worth nothing, but at the first push.
  2. (chiefly uncountable) The language of France, shared by the neighboring countries Belgium, Monaco, and Switzerland and by former French colonies around the world.
    She speaks French.
    • c. 1390, Robert Grosseteste, translating Chateau d'Amour as The Castle of Love, ll. 25 ff.:
      Ne mowe we alle Latin wite...
      Ne French...
    • 1533, Thomas More, The Debellacyon of Salem & Bizance, fol. 96:
      I... wolde also be bolde in such french as is peculiare to the lawys of this realme, to leue it wyth them in wrytynge to.
    • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Memoirs of a Cavalier, p. 13:
      I could speak but little French.
    • 1991, Michael Clyne, Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations, Walter de Gruyter (ISBN 9783110888140), page 169:
      Thus, complementary to the French of France, the Quebecois (and in a lesser degree the Frenches of Africa, Swiss French, etc.) would constitute languages in their own right.
    • 2013, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England, C.1100-c.1500, Boydell & Brewer Ltd (ISBN 9781903153475), page 361:
      The Frenches of England remain as working languages in the different registers of various occupational communities and for particular social rituals. Beyond the fifteenth century, French is a much less substantial presence in England, though […]
  3. (uncountable) The ability of a person to communicate in French.
    My French is a little rusty.
    • 1742 April 4, R. West, letter to Thomas Gray:
      [Racine's] language is the language of the times, and that of the purest sort; so that his French is reckoned a standard.
  4. (uncountable) French language and literature as an object of study.
    I'm taking French next semester.
  5. (uncountable, euphemistic, now often ironic) Vulgar language.
    Pardon my French.
    • 1845, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Adventure in New Zealand, Vol. I, p. 327:
      The enraged headsman spares no ‘bad French’ in explaining his motives.
    • 1986, John Hughes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
      Cameron: Pardon my French, but you're an asshole!
    • 2005 May 29, New York Times Book Review, p. 12:
      The book... is a welcome change from theory-infected academic discourse, pardon my French.
  6. (uncountable, dated slang) Synonym of oral sex#English|oral sex, especially fellatio.
    • 1916, Henry Nathaniel Cary, The Slang of Venery and Its Analogues, Vol. I, p. 94 ↗:
      French--to do the French--Cocksucking; and, inversely, to tongue a woman.
    • 1968, Bill Turner, Sex Trap, p. 64:
      You can be whipped or caned... or you can have French for another pound.
    • 1986 May 6, Semper Floreat, p. 34:
      Always use condoms with Greek (anal intercourse), straight sex (vaginal intercourse, fucking), French (oral sex).
    • 1996 October 13, Observer, p. 25:
      ‘French’—still used by prostitutes as a term for oral sex.
  7. (chiefly uncountable, dated slang) Synonym of dry#English|dry vermouth.
    • 1930, Ethel Mannin, Confessions & Impressions, p. 177:
      Tearle replied that gin-and-French and virginian cigarettes would do for him.
    • 1967, Michael Francis Gilbert, The Dust & the Heat, p. 14:
      He was drinking double gins with single Frenches in them.
Translations Translations Translations Proper noun
  1. Surname
Adjective

french

  1. Of or relating to France.
    the French border with Italy
  2. Of or relating to the people or culture of France.
    French customs
  3. Of or relating to the French language.
    French verbs
  4. (slang, sexuality) Of or related to oral sex, especially fellatio.
    French active
    French girl
  5. (informal, often, euphemistic) Used to form names or references to venereal diseases.
    French disease
    French crown
    French pox
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Verb

french (frenches, present participle frenching; past and past participle frenched)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of french


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