mauvais quart d'heure

/məʊˌveɪ kɑː(ɹ)ˈdɜː(ɹ)/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.49 in modern English

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

British usage

"Life, Lady Stutfield, is simply a mauvais quart d’heure made up of exquisite moments."
"It was a mauvais quart d’heure, the Christmas holidays of ’96, and poor Willy Phillips never lived to see the fight recovered."
"Many Guardian readers will have suffered a mauvais quart d'heure when they found out that their views on the Gulf war were closer to Peter's than Christopher's."
"Kate Fall, Cameron’s deputy chief of staff, has an initial mauvais quart d’heure when all she is offered is the chance to run Comic Relief […]"

Unadapted borrowing from French mauvais quart d'heure (“bad quarter of an hour”).

mauvais quarts d'heure (plural)

Questions

How do you pronounce mauvais quart d'heure?

The recorded pronunciation is /məʊˌveɪ kɑː(ɹ)ˈdɜː(ɹ)/.

What does mauvais quart d'heure mean?

A brief unpleasant period; a bad yet quick experience.

Where does mauvais quart d'heure come from?

How to pronounce mauvais quart d'heure

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “mauvais quart d'heure”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/məʊˌveɪ kɑː(ɹ)ˈdɜː(ɹ)/) so you know which sounds to aim for.

Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “mauvais quart d'heure”.

Repeat and practice — Say “mauvais quart d'heure” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.