Vichy

//ˈviːʃi// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Ellipsis of Vichy water. abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, ellipsis
  2. 2
    Labelling a regime that is traitorous or established in cooperation with a foreign or hostile power, especially in administration of occupied territory. attributive, derogatory

    "More recently, a succession of novels, including Robert Harris's Fatherland, Resistance by Owen Sheers and CJ Sansom's Dominion – which imagines a Vichy Britain in 1952 ruled by Lord Beaverbrook and Oswald Mosley – have explored the same theme."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A town in Allier department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France; the capital of Vichy France during World War II.
  2. 2
    A town in Allier department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France; the capital of Vichy France during World War II.; Vichy France; the Vichy French government. figuratively, historical, metonymically

Synonyms

All synonyms
vichy watervichy water

Example

More examples

"The French resistance was vital to the war, but the Vichy government was not a foreign element imposed from the outside."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From French Vichy, from Occitan Vichèi, phonetically evolved from the Latin place name Vippiacus, itself named after an agricultural field belonging to a farmer named Vippius. An alternate theory attributes the name to the Latin vicus calidus, meaning "warm settlement."

Etymology 2

From Vichy France.

Related phrases

Vichy FranceVichy waterworld war ii

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