Souteneur

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A man who protects, and commonly compels, a prostitute of any gender and lives off the earnings; a pimp. Originally a Parisian term, but since adopted into other languages such as English.

    "The souteneur ... though he lives in comparative comfort from what his mistress gives him, he rarely makes a big haul. His mistress gone, the pot ceases to boil; in fact, he calls her his marmite."

Example

More examples

"The souteneur ... though he lives in comparative comfort from what his mistress gives him, he rarely makes a big haul. His mistress gone, the pot ceases to boil; in fact, he calls her his marmite."

Etymology

From French souteneur (literally “one who supports”), from the verb soutenir.

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