esprit de l'escalier

A form of l'esprit de l'escalier — The phenomenon when a conversational rejoinder or remark only occurs to someone after the opportunity to make it has passed.

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Meanings

nounesprit de l'escalier (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of l'esprit de l'escalier.

    Yet, she had outflanked him, taken him unawares, and he had fired not one shot. Esprit de l'escalier—it was as he went upstairs that he saw how he might yet have snatched from her, if not the victory, the palm.

    1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, chapter XVII, in Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC, page 256
Cite this entry
APA

esprit de l'escalier. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/esprit%20de%20l'escalier

MLA

“esprit de l'escalier.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/esprit%20de%20l'escalier. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “esprit de l'escalier,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/esprit%20de%20l'escalier.

Source: esprit de l'escalier on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.