bête noire

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Someone or something that is unbearable and so particularly avoided or disliked; the bane of someone's existence; an object of aversion; an anathema.

Pronunciation

/bɛt ˈnwɑː/ /beɪt-/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bête noire.wav /bɛt ˈnwɑɹ/

Word forms

bête noire bêtes noires

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French bête noire (“(figurative) intolerable person”, literally “black beast”).

Synonyms

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.