gamine
1
9.9
- noun
- /ɡæˈmiːn/
- At his side is our little gamine, Mopsy, with a sheaf of CDs and tax-free municipal bonds spread fanwise and peeping out ever so coyly from her bodice.
- gamine chic
- French gamine
- gamine face
Examples
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Winona has always had that dark, doe-eyed gamine look... but did she get a crazy eye lift or something?
Blog text (29) -
I mistook Koren for a high school girl, fashionably lean and pale, in that blazer, with a "gamine" hairdo that really belonged to Louise Brooks or Colleen Moore.
Fiction book (1998) -
She had sort of a gamine look.
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This girl has to be a virtuoso performer, with fire, charm, beauty... ...a great lady with a gamine quality.
-
As she made coffee, I studied her, still freckled and faintly gamine, but not unchanged.
Fiction book (2002) -
"Maria!" A woman with short spiked hair and a mischievous, gamine face ran toward us, arms outstretched.
Fiction book (1993) -
"She grinned, a gamine grin that astonished him, and allowed him his first glimpse of the young troublemaker she had once been."
Fiction book (1991) -
Watson displays some surprising gamine sexiness, having shaken off her gawky girl-sorceress phase and emerged a butterfly.
Blog text (5) -
As Sara Vilkomerson notes, "Women on Entourage have always fallen into two categories: vapid, sweet, gamine types and tough-talking ball-busters" (1), but Amanda combines both types by being not only beautiful but strong.
Academic text (2012) -
The girl at the café had a gamine charm that drew everyone's attention.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Gamine comes from the French gamin ('street child'), and the feminine form began to describe a small, playful young woman with a slightly boyish, mischievous charm. So gamine now means a girl or young woman who looks playful, delicate, and a little boyish.