Meanings
plural maisons de tolérance
- A licensed brothel.
Lord Galen has been frequenting the maisons de tolérance of the city, and in one of them he ran into Cade, who has suddenly started to take an interest in the low life.
1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 10651 more example
We see abroad in the regulations of the maison de tolerance how a contempt for an immoral person, given its head and encouraged, may become a hellish cruelty threatening even the innocent.
1913, Rebecca West, “Lynch Law”, in Jane Marcus, editor, The Young Rebecca, Virago, published 1982, page 209
Origin
- Frenchmaison de tolérance
- Frenchmaison de tolérance
- Englishmaison de tolérance
Borrowed from French maison de tolérance.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
maison de tolérance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maison%20de%20tol%C3%A9rance
“maison de tolérance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maison%20de%20tol%C3%A9rance. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maison de tolérance,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maison%20de%20tol%C3%A9rance.
Source: maison de tolérance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.