‖ grande passion
(grɑ̃d pasjɔ̃)
[Fr.]
An overmastering love for another person; an engrossing love affair.
| 1823 Byron Juan xii. lxxvii, And if in fact she takes to a grande passion, It is a very serious thing indeed. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xv. 278 A French opera-dancer..towards whom he had once cherished what he called a ‘grande passion’. 1854 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green ii. xi. 95 Despite the hindrance which the grande passion is supposed to bring to the student. 1865 ‘Ouida’ Strathmore I. ii. 30 The perpetual gallantries, the never-ending, ever-changing grandes passions..that were characteristic of the Sabreur. 1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Sept. 612/2 So many Lives have been written without any mention of the grande passion. 1960 J. Bayley Characters of Love ii. 84 Troilo—after several affairs—is now embarked on a grande passion. |