Crossword clues for soubrette
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Soubrette \Sou`brette"\, n. [F.] A female servant or attendant; specifically, as a term of the theater, a lady's maid, in comedies, who acts the part of an intrigante; a meddlesome, mischievous female servant or young woman.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1753, theatrical jargon word for lady's maid characters in plays and operas, who typically were pert, flirtatious, and intriguing, from French soubrette, from Provençal soubreto "affected, conceited," fem. of soubret "coy, reserved," from soubra "to set aside," originally "to exceed," from Old Provençal sobrar, from Latin superare "to rise above, overcome," from super "over, above, beyond" (see super-).
Wiktionary
n. A female servant or attendant, especially as mischievous or cheeky, often featuring in theatrical comedies
WordNet
n. a pert or flirtatious young girl
a minor female role as a pert flirtatious lady's maid in a comedy
Wikipedia
A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy."
Usage examples of "soubrette".
He said I made a capital soubrette, and he certainly could not have been trying to deceive me, but the fact is he was deceived himself.
Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, smiled on them from a poster a dauby smile.
There were soubrettes, columbines, coryphees, harlequinas, figurantes, and so onthe usual thing.
Then she stared at the large poster of Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, and, listlessly lolling, scribbled on the jotter sixteens and capital esses.
He said I made a capital soubrette, and he certainly could not have been trying to deceive me, but the fact is he was deceived himself.
And seated in the one chair of the room, Magnus Derrick remained a long time, looking at his face in the cracked mirror that for so many years had reflected the painted faces of soubrettes, in this atmosphere of stale perfume and mouldy rice powder.
When it was over I went up to my room where I was waited on by the pretty maid, who performed her duties with that grace peculiar to the French soubrette, and told me that as I had become her mistress's chambermaid it was only right that she should be my valet.
More soubrette than heroine, she was in that brief desirable moment between coltishness and zaftig.
For most of us it smelled of sugar, of Cuban plantations, of the strange Cuban flag which had a star in the comer and which was always highly regarded by those who saved the little cards which were given away with Sweet Caporal cigarettes and on which there were represented either the flags of the different nations or the leading soubrettes of the stage or the famous pugilists.
There were soubrettes, columbines, coryphees, harlequinas, figurantes, and so on--the usual thing.