French–English dictionary

Boucles d'or

The protagonist of a traditional fairy tale. She is a golden-haired young girl who inquisitively enters the house of three bears and tries their three bowls of porridge, three chairs, and three beds, in each case finding only one that suits her.

bouclier

(obsolete) A shield resembling the Roman scutum. In modern usage, a smaller variety of shield is usually implied by this term.

Bouddha

Siddhartha Gautama, the Nepali prince and Indian philosopher and teacher who founded Buddhism.

bouddhique

Of, relating to, or practicing Buddhism.

bouddhisme

The religion or philosophy derived from the teachings of Gautama Buddha.

bouddhiste

Of, relating to, or practicing Buddhism.

bouder

(intransitive) To push out one's lips.

boudeur

(often, derogatory) silent and withdrawn after being upset

boudeuse

(often, derogatory) silent and withdrawn after being upset

boudin

A cooked sausage made out of meat (most often pork), blood and various other regional ingredients.

boudoir

A small sponge cake, shaped approximately like a finger.

boue

(chiefly, US) Soil or earth.

bouée

(nautical) A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes

bouée de sauvetage

A buoyant ring carried on board ships that can be thrown to someone in the water in an emergency to keep themselves afloat.

boueux

Covered with mud.

bouffe

The act of ingesting food.

bouffée

(colloquial) A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.

bouffer

To ingest; to be ingested.

bouffer le cul

(transitive, slang, vulgar) To perform cunnilingus or anilingus.

bouffi

(derogatory) Overweight to the extent of resembling a pig; morbidly obese.

bouffir

To fill soft substance with gas, water, etc.; to cause to swell.

bouffon

A grotesque performer or clown, buffoon.

bouffonne

A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.

bouffonnement

In a ridiculous manner. In a way that is funny, embarrassing or extremely implausible.

bouffonnerie

(often, in plural) A ludicrous gesture or act; ridiculous behaviour; caper.

boug

(informal) A male person; a bloke, a chap, a guy, a man; also, preceded by a modifying word, sometimes with a sense of mild reproach: used as a familiar term of address to a man.

bouge

(slang) A seedy bar, nightclub, etc.

bougeotte

(idiomatic) A strong desire to travel; wanderlust.

bouger

(intransitive) To act; to take action; to begin to act

bougie

A light source consisting of a wick embedded in a solid, flammable substance such as wax, tallow, or paraffin.

bougonner

(intransitive) To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.

bougre

(dated, outside, UK, and, Australia) A man, a fellow.

bouh

A loud exclamation intended to scare someone. Usually used when one has been hidden from the target, and then appears unexpectedly.

boui-boui

(slang) A seedy bar, nightclub, etc.

bouif

A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.

bouillabaisse

A type of fish soup or stew from Provence, France.

bouillant

That boils or boil.

bouille

(UK, AU, slang) A person's face. [from 19th c.]

bouilli

Cooked in boiling water.

bouillie

(countable, uncountable, figurative, derogatory) Something overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.

bouillir

The point at which fluid begins to change to a vapour; the boiling point.

bouilloire

(cookware) A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.

Bouillon

A city in Luxemburg, Brussels, Belgium.

bouillonnement

(uncountable, countable) The process of changing the state of a substance from liquid to gas by heating it to its boiling point.

bouillonner

(intransitive) To produce bubbles, to rise up in bubbles (such as in foods cooking or liquids boiling).

bouillotter

(transitive) To cause to cook or to cause to undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point.

boukiman

(business, finance) One who speculates; as in investing, one who is willing to take volatile risks upon invested principal for the potential of substantial returns.

Boulanger

An English surname originating as an occupation for a baker, or owner of a communal oven

boulangère

A person who bakes and sells bread, cakes and similar items.

boulangerie

A place in which bread (and often other baked goods such as cakes) is baked and/or sold.

boulder

A large mass of stone detached from the surrounding land.

boule

A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass.

boule à neige

A decorative object or toy containing a model of a landscape, fluid and suspended white flakes that emulate snowfall when shaken.

boule de Berlin

A doughnut (donut) with a sweet filling.

boule de feu

A short-lived glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air and thought to consist of ionized gas associated with thunderstorms.

boule de neige

A ball of snow, usually one made in the hand and thrown for amusement in a snowball fight; also a larger ball of snow made by rolling a snowball around in snow that sticks to it and increases its diameter.

boule de Noël

A small shiny spherical decoration, commonly put on Christmas trees.

bouleau

A hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.

bouledogue

A breed of dog developed in England by the crossing of the bullbaiting dog and the Pug to produce a ladies' companion dog, having a very smooth coat, a flattened face, wrinkly cheeks, powerful front legs, and smaller hind legs.

boulet

(ballistics, firearms) A solid, spherical nonexplosive missile for a cannon, rifle, gun, etc.

boulet de canon

A spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.

boulette

A ball of minced or ground meat, seasoned and cooked.

boulevard

A broad, well-paved and landscaped thoroughfare.

bouleversé

(of a person, predicative, _, only) Angry, distressed, or unhappy.

bouleverser

(transitive) To disturb the emotional equilibrium of; to distress; to greatly impact (most often positively).

boulier

A device used for performing arithmetical calculations; (rare) a table on which loose counters are placed, or (more commonly) an instrument with beads sliding on rods, or counters in grooves, with one row of beads or counters representing units, the next tens, etc. [from late 17th c.]

boulier compteur

A device used for performing arithmetical calculations; (rare) a table on which loose counters are placed, or (more commonly) an instrument with beads sliding on rods, or counters in grooves, with one row of beads or counters representing units, the next tens, etc. [from late 17th c.]

boulimie

(pathology) A chronic eating disorder characterized by a binge-and-purge cycle: extreme overeating followed by self-induced vomiting.

boulimique

A person suffering from bulimia nervosa.

boulingrin

A precision sport where the goal is to roll biased balls (weighted on one side, and called bowls) closer to a smaller white ball (the jack or kitty) than one's opponent is able to do.

boulocher

(intransitive, textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.

boulon

A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a cylindrical body that is threaded, with a larger head on one end. It can be inserted into an unthreaded hole up to the head, with a nut then threaded on the other end; a heavy machine screw.

boulonner

(transitive) To connect or assemble pieces using a bolt.

boulot

A task.

boum

Used to suggest the sound of an explosion.

bounty

(US, pejorative, ethnic slur) A black person who has overly assimilated into white culture, a black race traitor.

bouosité

The characteristic of being muddy.

bouquet

A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.

bouquineur

Fond of reading or studying, especially said of someone lacking social skills as a result.

bouquiniste

A person engaged in the business of selling books.

bourbier

Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.

bourbon

A serving of bourbon whiskey.

bourde

A clumsy or embarrassing mistake.

bourdon

(idiomatic, dated) A melancholy mood accompanied by deep thought; a moody daydream.

bourdonnement

The sound produced by something that buzzes.

bourdonner

(intransitive) To make a low, continuous, humming or sibilant sound, like that made by bees with their wings.

bourg

(historical) A fortified town in medieval Europe.

bourgeois

(history) An individual member of the bourgeoisie, the third estate of the French Ancien Regime.

bourgeoise

(history) An individual member of the bourgeoisie, the third estate of the French Ancien Regime.

bourgeoisie

(Marxism) The capitalist class.

bourgeon

A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded.

bourgeonner

(intransitive) To swell to the point of bursting.

bourgmestre

The mayor, or head magistrate, of a town in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and certain other countries.

bourgogne

A variety of wine from this region, chiefly red wine made with pinot noir grapes.

bourrade

A light blow or jolting collision.

bourrage

The act of cramming (forcing or stuffing something).

bourrasque

A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration; windflaw.

bourre

(sewing) Cotton, wool, silk or synthetic material used to stuff the inside of a mattress, quilt etc.

bourreau

An official person who carries out the capital punishment of a criminal.

bourreau de travail

(by extension) Someone or something that does a lot of work; something or someone who works consistently or regularly.

bourrelle

An official person who carries out the capital punishment of a criminal.

bourrer

(transitive) To press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.

bourrer la pipe

(transitive, vulgar) To perform oral sex on (someone); to fellate.

bourrer le crâne

(psychology) To affect one's mind by using extreme mental pressure or any other mind-affecting process. (e.g. hypnosis)

bourriche

A large basket, usually with a cover, used for the packing and carrying of articles or small animals.

bourriner

(transitive, gaming, _, slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage.

bourru

An ill-tempered person full of stubborn ideas or opinions, often an older man.

bourse

(anatomy) Any of the many small fluid-filled sacs located at the point where a muscle or tendon slides across bone. These sacs serve to reduce friction between the two moving surfaces.

bourse d'étude

(education) A merit-based scholarship.

bourse d'études

(education) A merit-based scholarship.

boursier

(chiefly, Britain) A scholar appointed to a fellowship, that is, a paid academic position held for a certain period which usually requires the scholar to conduct research.

boursouflé

(of a person, their language or writing) showy in speech and given to using flowery or elaborate terms; grandiloquent; pompous

boursoufler

To fill soft substance with gas, water, etc.; to cause to swell.

boursouflure

A small bubble between the layers of the skin that contains watery or bloody fluid and is caused by friction and pressure, burning, freezing, chemical irritation, disease, or infection.

bousculade

A scam or swindle.

bousculer

(intransitive) To rush or hurry.

bouse

A dropping of cow dung.

bousiller

(informal, transitive) To ruin, mess up.

bousilleur

Someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence.

bousilleuse

Someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence.

boussole

A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).

bout

The most extreme point of an object, especially one that is longer than it is wide.

bouteille

The contents of such a container.

bouteille [[d']]eau

(countable) A serving of liquid water.

boutique

A small shop, especially one that sells fashionable clothes, jewelry and the like.

boutisse

(masonry) A brick that is laid sideways (on its largest face), for example at the top of a wall or within the brickwork, with its smallest side showing (oriented so that that side is wider than it is tall).

bouton

A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded.

bouton-d'or

Any of many herbs, of the genus Ranunculus, having yellow flowers; the crowfoot.

bouture

(countable, horticulture) A leaf, stem, branch, or root removed from a plant and cultivated to grow a new plant.

bouvier

A man who raises or tends cattle, as:

bouvière

A fish of species Rhodeus amarus, originating in Europe, ranging from the Rhone River basin in France to the Neva River in Russia.

bouvillon

(archaic) A young bull.

bouzillé

(slang) Broken.

bouziller

(transitive, slang) To catch (someone) in the act of doing something wrong, socially and morally inappropriate, or illegal, especially when being done in a sneaky or secretive state.

bovidé

An animal of the family Bovidae (such as the antelope, cattle, goat, and sheep).

bovin

(not comparable) Of, relating to, or characteristic of cattle.

bovins

(pejorative, figuratively) People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.

Bowen

A coastal town and locality in the Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia.

bowling

A game played by rolling a ball down an alley and trying to knock over a triangular group of ten pins; ten-pin bowling/five-pin bowling

box

An enclosed seating area consisting of a table next to a wall set between two high-backed benches, as in a diner or café.

boxe

(sports) A sport where two opponents punch each other with gloved fists to head and torso; the object being to score more points by the end of the match or by knockout, or technical knockout.

boxer

A participant in a boxing match; a fighter who boxes.

boxeur

A participant in a boxing match; a fighter who boxes.

boxon

A house of prostitution.

boy

Something that serves an ancillary function, such as an easel for a painter.

boyard

(historical) A member of a rank of aristocracy (second only to princes) in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia and Romania.

boyau

(military) A small trench or ditch, typically built in a zigzag pattern, serving to connect or provide communication between two trenches, particularly the rear and front lines.

boyaux

(in the plural) The entrails or intestines; the internal organs of the stomach.

boycott

The act of boycotting.

boycottage

The act of boycotting.