ci-devant

Adjective

1. Former, late.
   • Hastily Beatrice performed both her own and Emily's toilette; for what with fatigue and terror, her companion was almost powerless: still their celerity excited the praise of the ci-devant professor of the fine arts. -...
   • The ci-devant marquis was caught disguised in her apartment. She betrayed for him a good, easy friend of the people who had long loved her, and revenge is sweet. - 1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Lucretia: Or The Children...
   • Much they marvelled to see the wealth of the ci-devant blacksmith - 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, (please specify either...