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Ulysses vocabulary
57 Christianity and/or Biblical vocabulary words
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contretemps
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► definition
Definition:an unfortunate, unforeseen, possibly embarrassing event; hitch; mishap
► uses
Uses:
"Yes, huh, yes there was a small, a little contretemps at the tree."
John Knowles. A Separate Peace, p.109 (1959)
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I tactfully avoided any reference to the recent contretemps with the mare, instead pouring ale and offering chunks of bread and cheese.
Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)
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The groom was in the utmost alarm, both on his own account and on mine, but, in spite of this, so irresistibly had the sense of the ludicrous in this unhappy contretemps taken possession of his fancy, that he sang out a long, loud, and canorous peal of laughter, that might have wakened the Seven Sleepers.
Thomas De Quincey. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821)
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"So friend Wennerström is a vengeful and narrow-minded bastard who isn't going to forget his recent contretemps in a hurry. [...]"
Stieg Larsson. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Reg Keeland translation), p.223 (2009)
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I was not able, alas, to hold my breakfast, but dismissed that physicality as a trivial contretemps,
Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita
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more than once, some unhappy contre-temps has occurred in consequence of thoughtlessness on the part of our visitors.
Edgar Allan Poe. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4: The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (1845)
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