Word.ws English Dictionary

cuir bouilli

UK/kwɪə bu.ji/US/kwɪɚ bu.ji/

cuir bouilli noun: leather treated so as to become tough and rigid (and able to hold a moulded shape and decoration), used for artwork, carrying cases, and armor.

Noun

cuir bouilli (uncountable)

  1. Leather treated so as to become tough and rigid (and able to hold a moulded shape and decoration), used for artwork, carrying cases, and armor.
    • Cuir-bouilli was leather softened by boiling (generally in oil), and stamped or moulded into a definite form when in that condition; upon drying it became intensely hard and tough.1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 65

Forms of cuir bouilli

alternative formcuirboille
alternative formcuir-bouilli
alternative formcuir-bouilly
alternative formcuirbouly

Origin of cuir bouilli

In earlier uses, from Middle English quir-boili, cuirboille; in its modern form, borrowed from or respelling according to French cuir bouilli, from cuir (“leather”) + bouilli (“boiled”).

Questions about cuir bouilli

What does cuir bouilli mean?
Cuir bouilli means leather treated so as to become tough and rigid (and able to hold a moulded shape and decoration), used for artwork, carrying cases, and armor.
What part of speech is cuir bouilli?
Cuir bouilli is a noun.
How do you pronounce cuir bouilli?
Cuir bouilli is pronounced /kwɪɚ bu.ji/ (US).

Words near cuir bouilli in the dictionary

  1. cuing
  2. cuing in
  3. cuing off
  4. cuing up
  5. cuings
  6. cuir bouilli
  7. cuir-bouilli
  8. cuir-bouilly
  9. cuirass
  10. cuirasse
  11. cuirassed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cuir bouilli (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “cuir bouilli.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cuir_bouilli. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.