roué
/ˈruːeɪ
/noun dated
A debauched man, especially an elderly one: he had lived the life of a roué in the fleshpots of London and Paris...
- The story centres on Sarah Wode-Douglass, a poetry editor enticed to steaming 1970s Kuala Lumpur by a literary roué who she suspects is implicated in her mother's death.
- The mobsters and grifters and roués of the demimonde didn't have a college degree; they had money and juice.
- His date turned out to be an utterly delightful 24-year-old, who warmed to my charms and made me feel like a right roué.
Synonyms
libertine, rake, debauchee, dissolute man, loose-liver, degenerate, profligate;
lecher, seducer, ladies' man, womanizer, philanderer, adulterer, Don Juan, Lothario, Casanova, playboy;
sensualist, sybarite, voluptuary
informal ladykiller, lech, dirty old man, goat, wolf, skirt-chaser
dated gay dog, rip, blood
archaic rakehell
rare dissolute
Origin
Early 19th century: French, literally 'broken on a wheel', referring to the instrument of torture thought to be deserved by such a person.