sobriquet

noun so·bri·quet \ ˈsō-bri-ˌkā , -ˌket ; ˌsō-bri-ˈkā , -ˈket \

variants: or less commonly soubriquet play \ˈsō-bri-ˌkā, -ˌket, ˈsü-; ˌsō-bri-ˈkā, -ˈket, ˌsü-\

|Updated on: 13 Jun 2018

Examples: sobriquet in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of sobriquet

: a descriptive name or epithet : nickname

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Examples of sobriquet in a Sentence

Baseball player Ty Cobb was also known by the sobriquet “The Georgia Peach.”
tagged her with the sobriquet “peanut” because of her diminutive size

Recent Examples of sobriquet from the Web

Bridgewater told the crowd, and one couldn’t have asked for a much more full-blooded expression of that sobriquet.

— howard reich, chicagotribune.com, "Dee Dee Bridgewater embraces her Memphis soul," 2 June 2018
The Iroquois, who lived in Ontario and upstate New York, used the same sobriquet for the French-British boundary in the Seven Years’ War.

— porter fox, Outside Online, "Exploring America's Forgotten Border," 1 June 2018
The sobriquet followed him throughout his career, which lasted through 1985 and included six All Star selections.

— matt schudel, Washington Post, "Rusty Staub, baseball’s clutch-hitting ‘Le Grand Orange,’ dies at 73," 29 Mar. 2018
President Trump may be the most prolific name-caller in politics these days, but Gov. Jerry Brown offered a new sobriquet on Tuesday for a key member of the president's Cabinet, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

— john myers, latimes.com, "Essential Politics: California challenges ‘Outlaw Pruitt’ over rules on vehicle emissions," 2 May 2018
Billed as a British answer to the FBI, the NCA when mentioned to detectives tends to prompt another sobriquet: the Never Catch ’em Agency.

— suzi ring, Bloomberg.com, "Britain’s White-Collar Cops Are Getting Too Good at Their Job," 1 Mar. 2018
Duckworth had first tagged Trump with the sobriquet in January, after Trump accused Democrats of shutting down the government at the peril of the military.

— jonathan allen, NBC News, "Democrats debate: Get personal with Trump or take the high road," 12 Feb. 2018
Trump’s new sobriquet for Bannon, will stick to him for a while.

— nancy gibbs, Time, "The Unpresident: Why Donald Trump Will Never Change," 11 Jan. 2018
This mysterious paucity of information about Vermeer led to Thoré’s sobriquet mon Sphinx.

— The Economist, "LettersLetters to the editor," 2 Nov. 2017

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

Did You Know?

This synonym of nickname has the same meaning in modern French as it does in English. In Middle French, however, its earlier incarnation soubriquet referred to both a nickname and a tap under the chin. Centuries later, the connection between these two meanings isn't clear, but what is clear is that the "nickname" meaning of sobriquet was well established in French by the time English speakers borrowed the term in the mid-17th century - and was the only meaning that was adopted. In current English, the spelling sobriquet is most common, but soubriquet is also an accepted variant.