déjeuner
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: déjeuners
form: déjeûner
form: dejeuner
Etymology: From French déjeuner.
Senses: examples: text: She had a certain price, from which no earthly consideration would induce her to depart; and certain returns for this price in the shape of déjeuners and dinners, baths and beds, which she never failed to give in accordance with the dictates of a strict conscience. These were traits in the character of an hotel-keeper which cannot be praised too highly, and which had met their due reward in the custom of the public.
ref: 1861, Anthony Trollope, Tales of All Countries, London: Chapman and Hall, […], page 4:
text: The charges at the Inns along the road are generally, bed 2 fr. [francs], café-au-lait 1 fr., déjeuner and dinner 3 to 4 fr. each.
ref: 1874, A Handbook for Travellers in Algeria. […], London: John Murray, […], page 162, column 1:
text: During the summer months the following restaurants offer the advantages of open air gardens and terraces, where déjeuners and dinners are served: […]
ref: 1900, Harper’s Guide to Paris and the Exposition of 1900: Being Practical Suggestions Concerning the Trip from New York to Paris, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, page 60:
text: A friend of mine, who was at a déjeuner given at the Russian Embassy by the Prince Ouroussoff to the Grand Duc and Grande Duchesse Vladimir, told me that some of the toilettes were beautiful.
ref: 1901, Country Life Illustrated, volume 9, page xx:
text: “To Chatou,” I said; “we can have déjeuner there and then walk along the avenue beside the river to Croissy and the islands, if yon are not too tired.[…]” […] “I do not wish you to lose them [gloves]; but I know you have very pretty little hands indeed. I noticed them during déjeuner.” […] “Keep some appetite for déjeuner, or you will not be able to touch it.” […] I had not told her about my visit to Briant’s, but when after déjeuner she spoke of sending for a cab so that we might drive to the Paradis, I replied that I had ordered a vehicle, and that it would be at the door at a quarter to two o’clock. […] After a long chat about one thing and another, he kept me to déjeuner, in spite of my protests that I was expected at home. […] Five of us, I think, sat down to déjeuner, served by the official flunkeys.
ref: 1901, [Ernest Alfred Vizetelly], The Lover’s Progress, New York, N.Y.: Brentano’s, pages 261, 273, 313, 325–326, and 354:
text: We went to-day to Roulinas to receive the jewels which Romain is to take to the Mont de Piété, and took déjeuner at Marguery’s (the expensive Porte St. Denis restaurant).
ref: 1903, Truth, volume 54, page 1577:
text: It may be noted here that, so far as our experience went, the Custom House officials took déjeuner between 12 and 1 o’clock; that, like the servants’ dinner in our country, it was a feast after the order of the laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter not; that generally it may be advisable to time one’s arrival so that a long wait may be avoided, unless there is certainty of getting a satisfactory déjeuner close by; […]
ref: 1909, Motor Cycling and Motoring, volumes 14–15, page 70:
text: Naturally I was not thinking particularly of bags when I entered his house for the first time because the hall was all full of caricatures of celebrated people, and M. Jean Veber’s children were running about here and there, and I was thinking how much, if anything at all, I ought to charge for being English professor to his son—and then Madame Veber invited me to déjeuner and we forgot the money side of the question. […] In a burst of generous enthusiasm while dining the previous night with Blum, the Yankee student—in Establie’s Restarant,^([sic]) the Bohemian one—he offered Blum a seat for the following night, but when we went to Versailles for something next day, took déjeuner under the trees there, and French notes were simply melting into thin air.
ref: 1912, E[rnest] Bryham Parsons, Pot-Pourri Parisien, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Publishing Company, pages 49 and 109:
text: “[…] To-day you will take a holiday, and we will go out in a gondola to one of the lagoons, and have our déjeuner and tea.” […] Here he had déjeuner, his eyes ever busy with the prospect in the valley below him; […]
ref: 1913, Ainslee’s, volume 30, pages 68 and 142:
text: They bribed the waiters to lend them their costumes, and went themselves and served the déjeuner, and did the most atrocious things! It was the laugh of the week in Paris; and afterward the baron forgave them and gave another déjeuner for their benefit.
ref: 1913 March 15, Henry C[ottrell] Rowland, “The Sultana”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 185, number 37, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, page 45:
text: At noon, the President and Mrs. Wilson were the guests of honor at the state déjeuner given by President and Mme. Poincaré at the Elysée Palace. […] It was their first real meeting, for there had been no opportunity to talk at the Dauphine station or at the Elysée Palace déjeuner. […] The President took déjeuner at the Foreign Office with Pichon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a number of diplomatic guests.
ref: 1920, Charles T[haddeus] Thompson, The Peace Conference Day by Day: A Presidential Pilgrimage Leading to the Discovery of Europe, New York, N.Y.: Brentano’s, pages 15, 18, and 43:
text: He resumed his former custom of taking his déjeuner in his cabinet, and dined alone in his apartment.
ref: 1925, Walter Geer, Napoleon and Marie-Louise: The Fall of the Empire, New York, N.Y.: Brentano’s, page 238:
text: He took his departure and went off for déjeuner, at the little Café Pontoise that lies near the Préfecture. […] Yes, they were service flats. M. Gaillard had no personal servants; he generally took déjeuner here and dined out at a café, a gentleman of very regular habits.
ref: 1932, The Strand Magazine, volume 83, pages 140 and 478:
text: After twelve Rodin invited me to déjeuner, which was served out of doors; it was very odd. […] Finally, a rather dirty person came, brought a few things (which were well cooked), carried them around and, in a very good-natured way, forced me to help myself when I didn’t want to: he apparently thought me extremely shy. I have hardly ever been present at such a singular déjeuner. […] After lunch she spoke to me in a very friendly manner—only now as housekeeper—, invited me always to have déjeuner whenever I am in Meudon etc. […] After a déjeuner that passed no less uneasily and strangely than the one I last mentioned, I went with Rodin into the garden, and we sat down on a bench which looked out wonderfully far over Paris. […] We again took déjeuner together, and afterward there was a good hour of serious conversation when the others had risen. […] And right here and now let an invitation be extended to you and Anna Jaenecke for a déjeuner I would like to offer you there.
ref: 1945, Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Jane Bannard Greene and M[ary] D[ows] Herter Norton, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892 — 1910, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., pages 80–82, 85, and 338:
text: She gave a magnificent déjeuner to all the company, the Duc d’Aumale on her right, the Duc d’Orléans on her left. […] Monsieur Badouin, who had brought the news, was surrounded by the Duc, his family, and even the chefs, who appeared in their tall white caps, still holding the utensils with which they were preparing the déjeuner. […] At ten o’clock all took déjeuner together, except Louis Philippe, who was already too occupied to be punctual. […] At the Tuileries, the déjeuner was a jumble of emotions.
ref: 1957, Agnes de Stoeckl, King of the French: A Portrait of Louis Philippe, 1773-1850, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, published 1958, →LCCN, pages 136, 159, 190, and 264:
text: He took déjeuner with Châtillon; a meal which, as Lord Cockburn carefully explained to the jury, “is neither breakfast nor luncheon, nor what would be exactly interpreted by either of those terms, but is a sort of combination of both”; had dinner with M. d’Aranza, the Abbé Salis and M. Châtillon; said goodbye to Gossein, chance-met in the street; and, on March 1st, 1853 set sail in the French ship La Pauline for Valparaiso. […] He was hurried into the presence without even being allowed time for déjeuner.
ref: 1957, Michael Gilbert, The Claimant, London: Constable, pages 16 and 76:
text: If Guise is to see Catherine about Avenelle, it will be after the déjeuner. […] The arrangement that she and Nenette had labored on so long after déjeuner was of courtly fashion, a bundle of braided sections mingled with petite curls into a waterfall, which then cascaded down her back and across her left shoulder. […] I thought we could visit during our déjeuner.
ref: 2006, Linda Lee Chaikin, Daughter of Silk (The Silk House Series), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, →ISBN, pages 77, 116, and 181:
glosses: The French midday meal.