dauphin

plural dauphins · alternative obsolete dauphine

1. The eldest son of the king of France. Under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, the Dauphin of France, generally shortened to Dauphin, was heir apparent to the throne of France. The title derived from the main title of the Dauphin, Dauphin of Viennois.
2. figurativelyAn eldest son.

   1 more example

   "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came[…]and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins.[…]"

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

plural Dauphins

1. The title of a dauphin.

   Coordinate term: Dauphine

   1 more example

   French Dauphins: Louis XII ascended to the throne without having been Dauphin. He had two sons, both of whom died young and bore the title. Then the title passed to François I’s son. Henri II and François II succeeded, but Henri IV was not Dauphin. Louis XIII was of his line.

   1983, Jean-Charles de Fontbrune, translated by Alexis Lykiard, Nostradamus: Countdown to Apocalypse, Pan Books, published 1984, →ISBN, page 36

1. A placename:
   1. A commune of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
   2. A city in Manitoba, Canada.
   3. A rural municipality in western Manitoba, which surrounds the city; in full, the Rural Municipality of Dauphin.
   4. A borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States.
   5. An unincorporated community in Henderson County, Texas, United States.