Definition of grande horizontale in English:
grande horizontale
nounPlural grandes horizontalesˌɡrɒ̃d ˌɒrizɒ̃ˈtɑːlˌɡränd ˌôrizänˈtäl
humorous A prostitute.
Example sentencesExamples
- Needless to say, heterosexual women get scant public appreciation for their erotic talents: the most gifted Venus or grande horizontale receives ambiguous praise at best.
- The ambivalence and uncertainty of her role is captured in the two titles by which she was most commonly known in 19 th-century France: the grande horizontale and the demi-mondaine.
- A great beauty and something of a grande horizontale, she was as famous for her raunchy delivery on stage as for the succession of lovers she took off it; the men in her life included the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII.
- This was a huge trade in the 19th century, though seldom as glamorously practised as by the grandes horizontales of 19 th-century Paris or 16 th- or 17 th-century Rome and Venice.
- Heads full of curls on grandes dames or grandes horizontales required daily professional upkeep in their homes, not in salons.
- With such ageing courtesans as Lady Melbourne and Lady Oxford - the ‘grande horizontale’ of Whig politics - holding sway, the moral license of Regency London has a cosy and almost institutionalised feel about it.
- There was a time when baths of asses’ milk and potions of dissolved pearls were only for the grandest of the grandes horizontales.
- Finding no alternative but an uneasy life as a celebrated grande horizontale, she vows never to conceal from her young daughter Alice the true facts of life, lest she make similar mistakes out of ignorant rebellion.
- The role of grande horizontale was one you played well, and I loved you in it as I loved you in all your parts, but there was little for me to do.
Origin
Late 19th century: French, literally 'great horizontal'.