Vaurien

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A good-for-nothing; a scoundrel. archaic

    "Quarantine, a disagreeable thing at all times, was rendered perfectly disgusting by the manner in which the spoglia was conducted, the vermin, and the disobliging conduct of the director, who was a regular “vaurien.”"

Example

More examples

"Quarantine, a disagreeable thing at all times, was rendered perfectly disgusting by the manner in which the spoglia was conducted, the vermin, and the disobliging conduct of the director, who was a regular “vaurien.”"

Etymology

Borrowed from French vaurien; used by Isaac D'Israeli for the name of the eponymous character of his 1797 novel Vaurien: or Sketches of the Times.

Related phrases

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