Biedermeier
name ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 of or relating to a style of furniture developed in Germany in the 19th century wordnet
- 1 A period in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities and a sense of parochialism, starting with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and ending with the onset of the Revolutions of 1848. historical
"When Frederick died, there followed that time of which Germans themselves are ashamed—the hole-and-corner time, the time when the parochial spirit was abroad and no German burgher saw beyond the village church and the village pump; the Biedermeier time (that comic figure of the German Punch), the time of genuine German philistinism, when the people were lapped in an idyllic repose and were content, as many are to-day, with the smallest and simplest pleasures."
Example
More examples""It is typical of the early Biedermeier, still showing the lingering influence of the French empire, encrusted with ornamentation and detail," noted Laurie Winters."
Etymology
Borrowed from German Biedermeier.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.