French–English dictionary

maquée

A soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow's milk, originating from and eaten throughout central, northern, eastern, and southeastern Europe, as well as the Low Countries.

maquereau

Certain smaller edible fish, principally true mackerel and Spanish mackerel in family Scombridae, often speckled,

maquereautage

The practise of managing and hiring out prostitutes.

maquereauter

(intransitive) To act as a procurer of prostitutes; to pander.

maquerellage

The practise of managing and hiring out prostitutes.

maquerelle

(archaic, British slang) A procuress; a woman who procures customers for prostitutes.

maquereller

(intransitive) To act as a procurer of prostitutes; to pander.

maquette

(publishing) The process of arranging editorial content, advertising, graphics and other information

maquillage

(countable, uncountable) Cosmetics; colorants and other substances applied to the skin to alter its appearance.

maquiller

To make social or romantic advances to; to pay court to. [from 18th c.]

maquis

(US) A region of shrubs, typically dry in the summer and rainy in the winter. The coast of the Mediterranean is such a region.

maraîcher

A farmer; one who grows things.

marais

An area of low, wet land, often with tall grass or herbaceous plants. (Compare swamp, bog, fen.)

Marathon

A town in Attica, Greece, the site of the victory in 490 BC of heavily outnumbered Athenians against Persians.

marathoner

To watch multiple episodes of a television programme in a short period of time.

marauder

(intransitive) To move about in roving fashion looking for plunder; to loiter.

maraudeur

Someone who moves about in roving fashion looking for plunder.

maraudeuse

Someone who moves about in roving fashion looking for plunder.

marbre

(baseball) A flat, pentagonal, rubber object placed at the center of the batter's box, which is used as a basis for judging pitched strikes and balls, and the touching of which by a runner advancing from or past third base scores a run.

marbrer

(intransitive) To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.

marc

(uncountable) An Italian grape-based spirit of between 80 and 100 proof, made from the distillation of pomace.

Marcel

A en given name.

Marcelle

A en given name.

marchand

A person who traffics in commodities for profit.

marchand [[d']]esclaves

A person engaged in the slave trade; a person who buys, sells, transports, or owns slaves.

marchand ambulant

An itinerant seller of small goods.

marchand d'orviétan

(archaic) One falsely claiming to possess medical or other skills, especially one who dispenses potions, ointments, etc., supposedly having curative powers; a quack. [from c. 1570]

marchand de fruits et légumes

(chiefly, British, Commonwealth, Irish) A person who sells fresh vegetables and fruit, normally from a relatively small shop.

marchand de poisson

(British) A person who sells fish.

marchand de sable

(folklore) A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes. [from early 19th c.]

marchande

A person who traffics in commodities for profit.

marchandisage

(originally, US) The promotion of goods for sale in a store, especially through advertising, attractive displays, discounts, etc.; also (generally) , the promotion of any goods or services for sale.

marchandise

(business) Anything movable (a good) that is bought and sold. [from 15th c.]

marché

A fair or temporary market, often for charity.

marche à pied

.

marche à suivre

A plan; a set of intended actions, through which one intends to achieve a goal.

marche arrière

(figuratively) A reversal of policy or opinion.

Marche des fiertés

A festival or other event, usually involving a march or parade and organized annually within a city, to celebrate the experiences and identities of LGBTQ people and to promote their interests and rights. [from late 20th c.]

marché haussier

(finance) A stock market where a majority of investors are buying ("bulls"), causing overall stock prices to rise.

marchepied

A board or small raised platform on which to support or rest the feet, such as that found in a carriage.

marcher

(intransitive) To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.

marcher lourdement

(intransitive) To toil; to drudge; especially, to study laboriously and patiently.

marcher sur

(intransitive) To step or walk (on or across something); to trample.

marcher sur la pointe des pieds

(intransitive) To walk quietly with only the tips of the toes touching the ground. [from late 14th C.]

Marches

An administrative region in central Italy.

marcheur

The agent noun of to walk: a person who walks or a thing which walks, especially a pedestrian or a participant in a walking race.

marcotte

A shoot of a plant, laid underground for growth.

mardi

(US, Canada, informal in UK) On Tuesday.

Mardochée

(Biblical character) One of the main personalities in the Book of Esther. He adopted and raised his cousin Esther and foiled a plot to assassinate the king.

mare

An inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is smaller than a lake.

marécage

An area of low, wet land, often with tall grass or herbaceous plants. (Compare swamp, bog, fen.)

marécages

A slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.

marécageux

Having the qualities of a bog; i.e. dank, squishy, muddy, and full of water and rotting vegetation.

marée

The daily fluctuation in the level of the sea caused by the gravitational influence of the moon and the sun.

marelle

(playground games) A child's game, in which a player, hopping on one foot, drives a stone from one compartment to another of a figure traced or scotched on the ground.

margarine

A spread, manufactured from a blend of vegetable oils (some of which are hydrogenated), emulsifiers etc, mostly used as a substitute for butter.

marge

A rim or margin of something.

marge de manœuvre

(nautical) Chiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space in the water for a ship or other vessel to lie at anchor or manoeuvre without getting in the way of other vessels, or colliding into rocks or the shore.

marginal

Outside the mainstream.

marginalement

In a marginal manner, or to a marginal extent; barely sufficiently; slightly.

marginalisé

(rare) Rejected; cast off as worthless.

marginaliser

(transitive) To relegate (something, especially a topic or a group of people) to the margins or to a lower limit; to exclude socially or otherwise.

Margot

A en given name.

margoulette

(slang, often, derogatory) The face.

margoulin

A person who swindles, cheats or defrauds.

Marguerite

A en given name.

marguillier

(UK) A lay officer of the Church of England who handles the secular affairs of the parish.

marguillière

(UK) A lay officer of the Church of England who handles the secular affairs of the parish.

mari

A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.

Mariage

A surname

marial

(Christianity) Of or relating to the Virgin Mary.

Marianne

A en given name.

marié

A man in the context of his own wedding; one who is going to marry or has just been married.

Marie-couche-toi-là

(archaic) A promiscuous woman; a mistress.

marie-jeanne

(slang, uncountable) Marijuana.

mariée

A woman in the context of her own wedding; one who is going to marry or has just been married.

marier

(transitive) To arrange for the marriage of; to give away as wife or husband. [from 14th c.]

marieur

Someone who finds suitable dates or marriage partners for other people.

marieuse

Someone who finds suitable dates or marriage partners for other people.

marijuana

(slang) Cannabis or marijuana.

marimba

(musical instrument) A percussion instrument with African origins, similar to a xylophone with resonators, but much lower in range and darker in timbre.

marin

Belonging to or characteristic of the sea; existing or found in the sea; formed or produced by the sea.

marin d'eau douce

(nautical) Unskilled as a seaman.

marina

A harbour for small boats.

marinade

A seasoned, often acidic liquid mixture in which food is marinated, or soaked, usually to flavor and prepare it for cooking.

Marine

A transliteration of the Russian female given name Марина (Marina).

mariner

(ergative) To allow a sauce or flavoring mixture to absorb into something; to steep or soak something in a marinade to flavor or prepare it for cooking.

marines

Any of numerous marine algae, such as a kelp.

marinier

(military, nautical) A soldier, normally a member of a marine corps, trained to serve on board or from a ship.

mariole

A person who acts in a silly fashion.

marionnette

A puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.

marionnettiste

A puppeteer who controls a marionette.

maritime

Belonging to or characteristic of the sea; existing or found in the sea; formed or produced by the sea.

Marius

A en given name.

marjolaine sauvage

The leaves of these plants used in flavouring food.

mark

(historical) A half pound, a former English and Scottish currency equivalent to 13 shillings and fourpence and notionally equivalent to a mark of sterling silver.

marketing

(uncountable) The promotion, distribution and selling of a product or service; the work of a marketer; includes market research and advertising.

marketplace

The space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates.

Markham

A city in southern Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

Marlène

A en given name borrowed from German in early 20th century.

marlin

Any species of game fish belonging to either of the genera Tetrapturus or Makaira, with a crested dorsal fin and a pointed, spear-like projection of the upper jaw.

marmelade

(less common in the, _, US, &, Canada) A sweet mixture of fruit boiled with sugar and allowed to congeal. Often spread on bread or toast or used in jam tarts

marmelade d'oranges

(obsolete) Quince jam.

marmite

(cookware) any vessel (such as a saucepan), with or without a lid, used to cook food

marmite à vapeur

(cookware) A cooking appliance that cooks by steaming.

marmonnement

A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.

marmonner

(intransitive) To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds

marmotte (d’Amérique)

(Northern US) A rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots, Marmota monax.

marmottement

A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.

marmotter

(intransitive) To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds

Maroc

A country in North Africa. Official name: Kingdom of Morocco. Capital: Rabat.

marocain

Of, from, or pertaining to Morocco or the Moroccan people.

Marocaine

A person from Morocco or of Moroccan descent.

marque

A smear, smudge or blot.

marque commerciale

A word, symbol, or phrase used to identify a particular company's product and differentiate it from other companies' products.

marque de coup

(shoemaking) A strip of leather set into the seam between the outsole of a shoe and the upper, through which these parts are joined by stitching or stapling.

marque de fabrique

(figurative) An attribute, symptom, object, or behavior which is distinctly characteristic of someone or something.

marque de petite vérole

A mark or scar in the skin caused by a pock.

marqué de succès

Resulting in success; assuring or promoting success; accomplishing what was proposed; having the desired effect.

marque substitutive

Something used or included temporarily or as a substitute for something that is not known or must remain generic; that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later.

marque-page

A strip of material used to mark a place in a book.

marquer

(transitive) To mark (especially cattle) with a brand as proof of ownership.

marquer le pas

(intransitive) To be neglected; to make little progress, be unsuccessful. [from 17th c.]

marquer un but

(Gaelic football, Australian rules football) To score a goal.

marqueur

A pen, often with a thick tip made of felt.

marquis

A title of nobility for a man ranking beneath a duke and above an earl.

marquisat

The territory held by a marquis, margrave or marchioness.

marquise

Any overhanging or projecting roof structure, typically over entrances or doors.

marraine

A woman present at the christening of a baby who promises to help raise the child in a Christian manner; a female godparent who sponsors the baptism of a child.

Marrakech

The capital city of the Marrakesh-Safi region, Morocco.

marrant

Amusing; humorous; comical. [from mid-18th c.]

marron

The fruit of this tree.

marron pourpré

Of a maroon color

marronne

An escaped black slave of the Caribbean and the Americas or a descendant of such a person. [from 17th c.]

marronnier

The fruit of this tree.

mars

The third month of the Gregorian calendar, following February and preceding April, containing the northward equinox.

Marseillaise

The French national anthem, La Marseillaise, with at least seven verses plus the chorus.

Marseille

The capital city of Bouches-du-Rhône department, France; the capital city of the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

marshal

A person in charge of the ceremonial arrangement and management of a gathering.

marsouin

Any small cetacean of the family Phocoenidae, related to dolphins and whales.

marsupial

Any member of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia, including those where the female has a pouch in which it rears its young through early infancy, such as kangaroos, koalas, wombats and opossums, as well as the pouchless shrew opossums.

marsupium

(zoology) An organic pocket in which a marsupial carries its young.

marte

Any carnivorous mammal of the genus Martes.

marteau

A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.

marteau de forgeron

A hammer that consists of a large, heavy, broad and flat block of metal (the head) attached to a handle typically 0.5 meter to 1 meter long. The sledgehammer's design is meant to allow it to be swung powerfully, and to distribute force over a wide area upon impact.

marteau-piqueur

A portable percussive power tool that combines a hammer and chisel used to drill or break hard matter, for instance rock or concrete.

martèlement

The sound of a dull impact.

marteler

(with "in") To hammer or to hit anything hard.

Martial

A en given name, narrowly applied to certain historic persons (but some of its foreign cognates are modern given names).

martien

Of or relating to the planet Mars, or (science fiction) its imagined inhabitants. [from 19th c.]