soupçon
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /suːpˈsɒn/
ipa: /suːpˈsɒ̃/
rhymes: -ɒn
Forms: form: soupçons
form: soupcon
Etymology: From French soupçon. Doublet of suspection.
Senses: examples: text: Add a soupçon of red pepper.
text: coffee with a soupçon of cognac
text: No one is so depraved that a soupçon of goodness cannot be found in them.
text: Henrietta, her niece, looked much prettier than she really was; she had good dark eyes, to which a soupçon of rouge, put on with such skill that few suspected it, gave all possible brightness.
ref: 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 21:
text: Eleanor returned the pressure of the other's hand with an infinitesimal soupçon of a squeeze.
ref: 1857, Anthony Trollope, “The Stanhopes at Home”, in Barchester Towers. […], copyright edition, volume II, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1859, →OCLC, page 259:
text: […] and as he spoke, there was just a soupçon of foreign accent in the pronunciation of the French vowels, a certain drawl of o's and a's, that would have betrayed the Britisher to an observant ear.
ref: 1906, Baroness Orczy, chapter VI, in I Will Repay, London: Greening & Co, page 88:
text: Anthony was playing with an ancient tennis-ball, and he bounced it carefully on the floor several times before he answered with a soupçon of acidity:
“You're a little idiot, Geraldine.”
ref: 1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 1, page 92:
text: There were times, during the first two years of the Biden presidency, when I came close to forgetting about it all: the taunts and the provocations; the incitements and the resentments; the disorchestrated reasoning; the verbal incontinence; the press conferences fueled by megalomania, vengeance, and a soupçon of hydroxychloroquine.
ref: 2023 December 8, Jennifer Senior, “What Will Happen to the American Psyche If Trump Is Reelected?”, in The Atlantic:
synonyms: word: ace
word: tinge
word: atom
word: trace element
word: aught
word: bissel
word: bit
word: crumb
word: glimpse
word: dab
word: damn
word: dash
word: diddly
word: glint
word: dot
word: spatter
word: drop
word: dusting
word: fleck
word: hint
word: flip
word: flyspeck
word: grain
word: halfpennyworth
word: inch
word: iota
word: jot
word: lick
word: mite
word: modicum
word: molecule
word: morceau
word: morsel
word: mote
word: ooch
word: ounce
word: particle
word: pennyworth
word: piece
word: pinch
word: scantling
word: semblance
word: scent
word: scintilla
word: scooch
word: scrap
word: scruple
word: shred
word: skerrick
word: skoosh
word: skosh
word: sliver
word: smattering
word: smidge
word: smidgen
word: smidget
word: smidgy
word: smitch
word: smithereen
word: soupçon
word: spark
word: speck
word: speckle
word: spot
word: sprinkle
word: sprinkling
word: strain
word: tad
word: tidbit
word: tidge
word: tittle
word: toddick
word: touch
word: trace
word: trifle
word: tuppence worth
word: vestige
word: whiff
word: whit
glosses: A very small amount; a hint; a trace, slight idea; an inkling.
glosses: A suspicion; a suggestion.