Ci-devant
adj
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Former, late. not-comparable
"Hastily Beatrice performed both her own and Emily's toilette; for what with fatigue and terror, her companion was almost powerless: still their celerity excited the praise of the ci-devant professor of the fine arts."
Example
More examples"Hastily Beatrice performed both her own and Emily's toilette; for what with fatigue and terror, her companion was almost powerless: still their celerity excited the praise of the ci-devant professor of the fine arts."
Etymology
Borrowed from French ci-devant.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.