prie-dieu
UK/pɹiːˈdjəː/
prie-dieu noun: a piece of furniture on which someone can pray, consisting of a cushioned area to kneel on, with a built-in ledge for books.
Noun
prie-dieu (plural prie-dieus or prie-dieux)
- A piece of furniture on which someone can pray, consisting of a cushioned area to kneel on, with a built-in ledge for books.
- Leaning her childish face and full chin on the shelf of the prie-Dieu, her eyes fixed, she laughed, out of some hidden capacity, some lost subterranean humour [...].1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 42
- thinking to improve his hour, he took to kneeling at a prie-dieu and ventured upon some propitiatory prayers to the Virgin which might serve as a sort of scaffolding to the more important confession which was to follow.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 772
Forms of prie-dieu
| plural | prie-dieus |
|---|---|
| plural | prie-dieux |
Origin of prie-dieu
From French prie-Dieu, from prie (“pray”) + Dieu (“God”).
Questions about prie-dieu
- What does prie-dieu mean?
- Prie-dieu means a piece of furniture on which someone can pray, consisting of a cushioned area to kneel on, with a built-in ledge for books.
- What part of speech is prie-dieu?
- Prie-dieu is a noun.
- How do you pronounce prie-dieu?
- Prie-dieu is pronounced /pɹiːˈdjəː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of prie-dieu?
- The plural of prie-dieu is prie-dieus.
Words near prie-dieu in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prie-dieu (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: “prie-dieu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prie-dieu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.