Cicisbea

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The female companion or lover of a (chiefly married) man, especially in eighteenth-century Italy. historical

    "The instant he was taken ill, he was persuaded he should dye, and refused to see anybody; even my neighbour, Anna Frescobaldi, his Cicisbea of 30 years standing was forbid."

Example

More examples

"The instant he was taken ill, he was persuaded he should dye, and refused to see anybody; even my neighbour, Anna Frescobaldi, his Cicisbea of 30 years standing was forbid."

Etymology

From Italian cicisbea.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.