enfant terrible
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enfant terrible
Where it comes from
Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”).
noun enfants terribles
-
An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others.
He was soon the talk of the town, the enfant terrible of our little world.
Similar: terrible infant
- An unusually successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde. Diplomatists have no right to complain of mere lies; it is their own fault, if, educated as they are, the lies deceive them; but they complain bitterly of traps. Palmerston was believed to lay traps. He was the enfant terrible of the British Government.
- A wild child. “A perfect cherub” she pronounced it the first day, but an “enfant terrible” before the week was over, for the young hero rioted by day, howled by night, ravaged the house from top to bottom, and kept his guardians in a series of panics by his hairbreadth escapes.
Translations
Every language
noun unconventional badly-behaved person
| Español | niño terrible |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | アンファンテリブル anfan teriburu |
| 中文 | 頑童 /顽童 wántóng, 淘氣鬼 /淘气鬼 táoqìguǐ |
| Français | enfant terrible |
| Deutsch | Enfant terrible |
| Русский | анфа́н-терри́бль anfán-terríblʹ, несно́сный челове́к nesnósnyj čelovék |
Talk about this word "enfant terrible." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/enfant%20terrible. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. enfant terrible. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/enfant%20terrible "enfant terrible." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/enfant%20terrible.Cite this
@misc{enfant_terrible_2026,
title = {enfant terrible},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/enfant%20terrible},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
