ménage à troisn.
/ˌmeɪnɑːʒ ɑː ˈtrwɑː/, /ˌmɛnɑːʒ ɑː ˈtrwɑː/, /məˌnɑːʒ ɑː ˈtrwɑː/, U.S. /meɪˈnɑʒ ə ˈt(r)wɑ/, /məˈnɑʒ ə ˈt(r)wɑ/ A relationship or domestic arrangement in which three people (usually a husband and wife and the lover of one of these) live together or are romantically or sexually involved; (also) a sexual act involving three people. Also in extended use. Cf. à trois adv.
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society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > types of marriage custom or practice > [noun] > cohabitation > ménage à trois
ménage à trois1862
the world > relative properties > relationship > correlation > [phrase] > ménage à trois
ménage à trois1958
1862 R. F. Burton City of Saints (ed. 2) x. 431 A ménage à trois, in the Mormon sense of the phrase, is fatal to the development of that tender tie which must be confined to two.
1891 G. B. Shaw Quintessence of Ibsenism 116 An elderly gallant who quite understands how little she cares for her husband, and proposes a ménage à trois to her.
1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Oct. 713/3 He meets, and marries..a highly sexed waitress, who inevitably tires of..the mother's dominance of the ménage à trois.
1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest xii. 249 That curious ménage à trois, the Anglo-American honeymoon with Russia.
1959 Times 28 Dec. 3/6 This happy ménage-à-trois—the errant wife, the lover and the unsuspecting husband.
1960 Times 30 Apr. 9/2 Primarily it [sc. a song] is a marriage of voice and verse, but since an instrument is soon added it turns the relationship into a ménage à trois.
1973 Country Life 14 June 1768/3 Pauline Viardot..the opera singer who with her husband and Turgenev formed a ménage à trois.
2000 Village Voice (N.Y.) 5 Dec. 140/4 She..unsuccessfully appealed the NC-17 rating dumped on American Psycho due to a scene depicting a ménage à trois.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1862