Dictionary Definition
contretemps n : an awkward clash; "he tried to
smooth over his contretemps with the policeman"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
- An unforeseen, inopportune, or embarrassing event; a hitch
- An ill-timed pass.
Quotations
- 1896 - Bret Harte,
The Indiscretion of Elsbeth
- "I see that you are a born American citizen--and an earlier knowledge of that fact would have prevented this little contretemps. You are aware, Mr. Hoffman, that your name is German?"
- 1934 - Edgar
Rice Burroughs, Pirates
of Venus, chapter 12
- What a strange contretemps! Its suddenness left me temporarily speechless; the embarrassment of Duare was only too obvious. Yet it was that unusual paradox, a happy contretemps--for me at least.
- 1960 - "Emily Post Is
Dead Here at 86; Writer was Arbiter of Etiquette", New York Times,
September 27
- Mrs. Post was the center of a notable contretemps when she spilled a spoonful of berries at a dinner of the Gourmet Society here in 1938.
- 2004 - Sunday Oregonian, June 13
- It won't rank with the doping scandals in track and field and baseball's steroid controversy but the Rose Cup race had its own little contretemps last year.
Synonyms
Translations
an unforeseen or embarrassing event
(fencing) ill-timed pass