Definition of BOULEVARDIER

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The first boulevardiers got their name from the thoroughfares they frequented: the typically straight and geometrically precise boulevards of Paris. These particular men must have cut an impressive figure because the word boulevardier was eventually applied to any worldly and socially active man. Unlike many near-synonyms, "boulevardier" is generally a complimentary term. It differs from "flaneur" in that the latter refers to someone who is idle, and it doesn't imply the same vanity and foolishness that words like "fop," "dandy," and "coxcomb" do.

Examples of boulevardier in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Started up and driven out of its resting place, the car sounds nothing like a boulevardier, with the popping and spitting and pouring out smoke and brimstone. — Jim Motavalli, New York Times, "Their Car Beat Hitler’s Racers, but Who Owns It Now?," 9 Apr. 2020 Glenn O’Brien was the leading boulevardier of my particular subgenerational pocket, the one that thrived in lower Manhattan from the last days of the hippie era until sometime around the end of the 1990s. — Luc Sante, The New York Review of Books, "The Sweet Smell of Hipness," 24 Mar. 2020 An elaborate cast of colorful characters keeps showing up out of nowhere, just as artists, writers, boulevardiers and other colorful visitors paraded through the Stein household in Paris. — Mark Swed, latimes.com, "Opera UCLA proves Susan B. Anthony, more than ever, remains 'The Mother of Us All'," 21 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'boulevardier.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.