Meanings
- uncountablebiologyDense Mediterranean coastal scrub.First known use 19th c.
The older man claims to find a measure of peace in Corsica’s wild landscape, and as Mitchell explores the foothills of maquis, fragrant with “the sharp resinous smell of laurel rose and thyme,” he too succumbs.
2007 May 27, Alida Becker, “Season in the Sun”, in New York Times - historicaluncountableThe French resistance movement during World War II, or other similar movements elsewhere.First known use 1940s
By this time O.S. membership numbered some 4,500, and many of those who escaped imprisonment either fled abroad or formed the nucleus of a growing maquis in the more inaccessible parts of the country.
1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 751 more example
For many weeks after I finished Bodyguard of Lies, Alan Turing stuck in my mind. He seemed so incongruous a figure to be mixed up with the cut-throat maquis and sinister double-agents who populated the rest of the book.
1983 December 3, Gary Ralph, “No Security for Those Who Never Had It”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 5
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna guerrilla fighter in the French underground in World War II
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Catalan màquia
- màquiavegetation
Esperanto makiso
- makisovegetation
French maquis
- maquisvegetation
Greek θαμνώνες
- θαμνώνες (thamnónes)vegetation
Portuguese maquis
- maquisvegetation
Cite this entry
maquis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maquis
“maquis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maquis. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maquis,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maquis.
Source: maquis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.