mauvais quart d'heure

/ French (movɛ kar dœr) /


noun
  1. British a brief unpleasant experience

Origin of mauvais quart d'heure

1
literally: (a) bad quarter of an hour

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use mauvais quart d'heure in a sentence

  • The result of Olympe's aspirations was, we know, such a mauvais quart d'heure with Anne for the Cardinal as to terrify him.

    Court Beauties of Old Whitehall | W. R. H. Trowbridge
  • There was a mauvais quart d'heure below, during which, I am ashamed to say, I forgot the quest.

    The Riddle of the Sands | Erskine Childers
  • In fact, the mauvais quart d'heure was really due to the innate womanly weakness of Mademoiselle Justine Delande.

    A Fascinating Traitor | Richard Henry Savage
  • The news from Egypt is certainly not reassuring, and the mauvais quart d'heure may arrive at any moment.

  • So he and the famous goat were mutually spared many a mauvais quart d'heure.

    Darkness and Dawn | George Allan England