Word.ws English Dictionary

rond-de-cuir

UK/ɹɒ̃ də ˈkwɪə/US/ɹɔn də ˈkwɪɹ/

rond-de-cuir noun: a French bureaucrat or functionary; an office worker.

Noun

rond-de-cuir (plural ronds-de-cuir)

  1. A French bureaucrat or functionary; an office worker.
    • In 1893, Georges Courteline immortalised France's petty bureaucrats in a satirical novel called Messieurs les Ronds-de-Cuir, after the leather cushions that civil servants sat on. The "ronds-de-cuir" are still ridiculed and detested. Like Courteline's bureaucrats, the tormentors of the préfecture...2013 March 11, Lara Marlowe, “Magic of living in Paris punctures pain of endless French bureaucracy”, in The Irish Times
  2. (colloquial, derogatory) A pen-pusher.

Forms of rond-de-cuir

pluralronds-de-cuir

Origin of rond-de-cuir

From French rond-de-cuir.

Questions about rond-de-cuir

What does rond-de-cuir mean?
Rond-de-cuir means a French bureaucrat or functionary; an office worker.
What part of speech is rond-de-cuir?
Rond-de-cuir is a noun.
How do you pronounce rond-de-cuir?
Rond-de-cuir is pronounced /ɹɒ̃ də ˈkwɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of rond-de-cuir?
The plural of rond-de-cuir is ronds-de-cuir.

Words near rond-de-cuir in the dictionary

  1. rond anchor
  2. rond anchors
  3. rond de jambe
  4. rond-anchor
  5. rond-anchors
  6. rond-de-cuir
  7. Ronda
  8. rondache
  9. rondacher
  10. rondachers
  11. rondaches

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rond-de-cuir (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.

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