[a. F. boudoir lit. ‘a place to sulk in,’ f. bouder to pout, sulk.] A small elegantly furnished room, where a lady may retire to be alone, or to receive her intimate friends. Formerly sometimes applied to a man’s private apartment.
1781. Hayley, Triumphs Temper, II. 129.
| As the neat Daisy to the Sun’s broad flower, | |
| As the French Boudoir to the Gothic Tower, | |
| Such is the Peer, whom Fashion much admires, | |
| Compar’d in person to his ancient sires. |
1785. Cowper, Lett. to J. Hill, 25 June. I write in a nook that I call my boudoir.
1786. J. Adams, Diary, Wks. 1851, III. 405. In what he calls his boudoir—a little room between his library and drawing-room.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, ii. 24. Argemone was busy in her boudoir (too often a true boudoir to her).
1886. Morley, Crit. Misc., I. 31. The paltry affairs of the boudoir and the ante-chamber.
b. transf. The occupants of a boudoir.
1821. Hazlitt, Table-t., Vulgarity, 390–1. If the headstrong self-will and unruly turbulence of a common ale-house are shocking, what shall we say to the studied insincerity, the insipid want of common sense, the callous insensibility of the drawing-room and boudoir?
Hence Boudoiresque a. [see -ESQUE], of the kind appropriate to a boudoir. Boudoirize v. [see -IZE], to sit in or frequent a boudoir.
1880. Mrs. C. Reade, Brown Hand & White, II. iii. 59. How fond modern French painters seem to be of boudoiresque humanity.
1883. Harper’s Mag., July, 321/1. ‘It is a sweet hour,’ said Glorvina, softlt sighint.
‘It is a boudoirising hour,’ said I.
