pardon my French

verb
/ˌpɑːdn̩ maɪ ˈfɹɛnt͡ʃ/UK/ˌpɑɹd(ə)n maɪ ˈfɹɛnt͡ʃ/US

Etymology

From the use of French to mean “vulgar language”, ostensibly because the words used are not in English.

Definitions

  1. To excuse the speaker's frankness of expression or profanity.

    • That computer is a worthless piece of shit, if you’ll pardon my French.
    • 'Have you been in England long?' / 'A damned sight too long—if you'll pardon my French,' she answered.
    • Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for pardon my French. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA