‖ feu de joie
(f{obar} də ʒwa)
Also pl. feux de joie.
[Fr.; lit. ‘fire of joy’.]
† 1. A bonfire; also fig. Obs.
| 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 11 The Iesuites..would..haue been pleasant Spectators thereof, as at a Feu-de-ioy. 1771 E. Griffith tr. Viaud's Shipwreck 159 To illuminate our feux de joye. [1888 J. Payn Myst. Mirbridge vii, The news that the Home Farm was on fire, which he announced as though it were a feu de joie.] |
2. (See quot. 1867.)
| 1728 G. Carleton Mem. Eng. Officer 35 Sunday the 17{supt}{suph} Day of August, the Army was drawn out, as most others as well as my self apprehended, in order to a feux de Joye. 1801 Sporting Mag. XIX. 146 They had fired a feu-de-joye opposite their Major's house. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Feu-de-joie, a salute fired by musketry on occasions of public rejoicing, so that it should pass from man to man rapidly and steadily down one rank and up the other, giving one long continuous sound. 1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest viii. 174 A sudden fusillade of shots brought us to our feet..; it proved to be a wedding in the village, which the guests were celebrating in traditional style with a feu-de-joie. |
3. transf. and fig.
| 1658 J. Robinson Eudoxa i. 10 Unexpected calamities will quench the feudejoy of a long fore-set gratulation. 1804 T. G. Fessenden Orig. Poems 43 Then his heart, with rapture dancing, Kindled to a feu-de-joye. 1935 Punch 6 Nov. 526/1, I sent on as next turn the Mystery Feu de Joie [sc. a firework]. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Jan. 44/2 But the book remains a feu de joie. |