louche

/luːʃ/US/luʃ/

louche adjective: of questionable taste or morality; decadent.

Image: Phoney, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

louche (comparative loucher, superlative louchest)

Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.
- Upstairs Downstairs hosts the Kennedys and Wallis Simpson (these days, in British culture, the archetypal louche American).2012 February 25, “The other half lives: The transatlantic appeal of the British ruling classes”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2016
- Ever since X-Men: First Class set the series' clock back a few decades and installed Michael Fassbender's moody Magneto and James McAvoy's louche Charles Xavier as replacements for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's chess-playing pappies, the big-screen X-Men's central conflict—Xavier's Booker T....2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 24 May 2016
Not reputable or decent.
- My uncle knows something about that fellow—Clavering knows something about him. There’s something louche regarding him.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 70, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
- The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche!1888, Henry James, “The Aspern Papers”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume LXI, Boston, Mass.: Atlantic Monthly Co., →OCLC, page 304
Unconventional and slightly disreputable in an attractive manner; raffish, rakish.
- Anyone inside the business can also tell you that without Carine Roitfeld's louche sexy styling Tom Ford's Gucci might easily have come off looking like a high-end Club Monaco.2007 September 9, Guy Trebay, “Who will pull together the collections?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2015

Noun

louche

A dubious or disreputable person or thing
- 'That's right,' Joe smiled. 'Loafing about on the Mall with the louche of the town. And, speaking of the louche of the town, don't we have an appointment to interview one or two of them this morning?'2003, Barbara Cleverly, Ragtime in Simla, Robinson, →ISBN
- I'm outraged this louche has since fathered two children with another woman and that after all this questionable, nefarious behavior, Greer continues to see no conflict of interest in him being Terd's guardian.2007, Tom Treece, But What Do I Know?, Xulon Press, →ISBN

Verb

louche (third-person singular simple present louches, present participle louching, simple past and past participle louched)

(transitive) To make (an alcoholic beverage, e.g. absinthe or ouzo) cloudy by mixing it with water, due to the presence of anethole. This is known as the ouzo effect.
- Certain anise-flavored drinks have developed a mystique based on the exotic appearance of louching.
- In distillation, the first few liters of absinthe to come out of the still are called the head; the last few liters are the tail. The head and tail don't have enough alcohol to keep the oils in suspension, so the absinthe comes out of the still louched.2010, Paul Owens, Paul Nathan, Dave Herlong, The Little Green Book of Absinthe: An Essential Companion with Lore, Trivia, and Classic and Contemporary Cocktails, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, →ISBN

Examples of louche in a sentence

Let's hope he is no louche when it comes to his role in all of this.2012, Bill Cain, Dove of War, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:
I found a little corner to stand in and pretended to sip my own louched absinthe.2012, Heather E. Hutsell, chapter 1, in Blood Mettle, [s.l.]: Fatty Baby Cat Publishing, →ISBN, page 2:

Forms of louche

Adjective
comparative	loucher
superlative	louchest
Verb
third-person singular present	louches
present participle	louching
past participle	louched
past	louched

Origin of louche

Borrowed from French louche.

Words formed from louche

Words that rhyme with louche

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

tarboosh

Questions about louche

What does louche mean?: Louche means of questionable taste or morality; decadent.
How do you use louche in a sentence?: Let's hope he is no louche when it comes to his role in all of this.
What part of speech is louche?: Louche can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce louche?: Louche is pronounced /luːʃ/ (UK).

Words near louche in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: louche (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-louche.opus.

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