ménage à trois

plural ménages à trois · alternative menage a trois · alternative ménage-à-trois · alternative menage-a-trois

1. A household or relationship whereby three people live together as lovers.

   Old men frequently marry young girls, but then the portion is high and the ménage à trois common.

   1856, Richard F. Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, Könemann, published 2000, page 105

   4 more examples

   "We are certainly going to be happy—we three—in this innocent ménage à trois," she said. "I don't know what more you two men could ask for—or I, either—or the children or Eileen.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter 1, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   […]if she frowned—and there could be no doubt that she was frowning now—what lay before him, before them? A scamped and mean ménage à trois, existence eked out with the aid of Mrs. Knyvett’s scanty resources, and soured by her laments!

   1920, Anthony Hope, Lucinda

   For a while, he lived in a ménage à trois with the poet Paul Eluard and his wife, Gala Diakonova (who would later marry Salvador Dali).

   2001, Sheila Isenberg, A Hero of Our Own, page 134

   I'm not a prude and I wasn't a prude then, but I couldn't see living in a ménage à trois unless the third member were a girl.

   2006, Gene Lees, Portrait of Johnny, page 56

2. lifestyleA sexual act or experience involving three people; a threesome.

   No, the two guys don't go for each other; the triad tried a ménage à trois once but stopped because Chris thought it was icky.

   1999 November 15, John Cloud, “Henry & Mary & Janet &…”, in Time

   1 more example

   David and Angela and I had a ménage à trois for about five minutes, but then I made her leave because David and I were gonna play.

   1996, Cyrinda Foxe, in McNeil & McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, page 134

   Synonyms: three-way