Canaille
/kəˈnaɪ/ noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The lowest class of people; the rabble; the vulgar. collective, countable
"I was on a rampart watching the enemy pitch their camp; and, seeing the crowd of idlers round the stream, I asked M. du Pont, commissary of the artillery, to send one cannon-shot among this canaille: he gave me a flat refusal, saying that all this sort of people was not worth the powder would be wasted on them."
- 2 Shorts or inferior flour. Canada, uncountable
Example
More examples"I was on a rampart watching the enemy pitch their camp; and, seeing the crowd of idlers round the stream, I asked M. du Pont, commissary of the artillery, to send one cannon-shot among this canaille: he gave me a flat refusal, saying that all this sort of people was not worth the powder would be wasted on them."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French canaille.