sans-culotte Hear it!

sans-culotte definition

sans·-culotte (sanz′ko̵o lät′, -kyo̵o-; Fr sän kü lō̂t′)

noun

  1. a revolutionary: term of contempt applied by the aristocrats to the republicans of the poorly clad French Revolutionary army, who substituted pantaloons for knee breeches
  2. any radical or revolutionary

Etymology: Fr, lit., without breeches: (see sans & culotte)

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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