How to Use enfant terrible in a Sentence

enfant terrible

noun
  • Read on for a look back over the year’s cream of the crop… and its enfants terribles.
    Tyler Aquilina, EW.com, 23 Dec. 2019
  • His style earned him the title of the German opera world’s enfant terrible.
    New York Times, 9 Feb. 2022
  • There was a time when the undisputed enfant terrible of the couture was Jean Paul Gaultier.
    Kristen Bateman, Town & Country, 9 July 2021
  • And yet this was no return to his early East Village enfant terrible days, when Chang punched hole after hole in the kitchen walls.
    Alex Bhattacharji, WSJ, 2 Nov. 2018
  • Joel was the radical; Richard, the lover; Giles, the organizer; Jimmy, the enfant terrible; and Doug, the cipher.
    Hugh Ryan, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 June 2021
  • At 11 years and change, the enfant terrible is already sporting the hunchback and hook nose, and dreaming of world domination.
    Peter Debruge, Variety, 13 June 2022
  • The onetime enfant terrible, now a 50-year-old whose best work was behind him, reached inside to create his masterpiece.
    Gary Kamiya, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Mar. 2021
  • For Serre to obliquely reference Parisian fashion’s enfant terrible makes sense—even if her new print takes its name from aquatic life.
    Steff Yotka, Vogue, 29 Sep. 2020
  • Over a six-decade career, Mr. Kupfer would direct more than 200 opera productions and go from enfant terrible to elder statesman.
    Michael Cooper, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Now, fashion’s enfant terrible returns to the ever-versatile seating, this time for a bold new outdoor edition that debuts just in time for the warmer months.
    Helena Madden, ELLE Decor, 11 Mar. 2022
  • Halston’s enfant terrible act is starting to wear thin on everyone around him.
    Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, 17 May 2021
  • Architecture's enfant terrible Odile Decq is known for her distinct style inspired by punk and goth, a result of her spending time in London in the early 1980s.
    Dobrina Zhekova, Travel + Leisure, 28 Oct. 2021
  • In 2015, Miley Cyrus was the enfant terrible of pop culture, showing up barely clothed on the red carpet, smoking pot, and twerking on anything and everything in sight.
    Emily Kirkpatrick, PEOPLE.com, 18 Sep. 2017
  • Once, the enfant terrible of the White Stripes had routinely denounced computers for their deadening effects on rock.
    Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 9 June 2022
  • After rave reviews but slow sales, Lollapalooza kick-started the career of enfant terrible de la Rocha and his band of merry muckrakers.
    Katherine Turman, SPIN, 26 Feb. 2022
  • Dalle has long been the enfant terrible of French cinema, as well as one if its most chic representatives at worldwide film festivals.
    Vogue, 20 May 2019
  • Check in with the enduring enfant terrible of American fiction.
    Sophie Kemp, Vogue, 30 Dec. 2019
  • Margaret, four years younger than her sister, was the enfant terrible, charming, witty and outrageous, with a strong competitive streak and need for attention.
    Moira Hodgson, WSJ, 25 Mar. 2021
  • With each successive effort, he’s gotten closer to answering the question: What happens when an enfant terrible grows up?
    Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2022
  • Von Trier’s willingness to play the enfant terrible was a big part of his early legend, but so was his almost preternatural assurance with a camera.
    Adam Nayman, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2022
  • On the one hand, Mr. Brook was the enfant terrible with a talent for resuscitating classic plays and drawing major performances from major actors.
    BostonGlobe.com, 3 July 2022
  • Likewise, David Chang, who has transitioned from the food world’s enfant terrible to one of its elder statesmen, is openly addressing the mental and physical pressures of his industry.
    Kristina O’Neill, WSJ, 8 Nov. 2018
  • Humored my enfant terrible by inquiring about a tattoo.
    Washington Post, 31 Dec. 2021
  • In this origin story, the writers and directors have re-magined Lara as an orphaned enfant terrible, a radical bike courier rebelling against a privileged past.
    Mark Rapp, cleveland.com, 5 Apr. 2018
  • The manager was already shaping up to be English football's latest enfant terrible, a precocious talent with an insatiable hunger for success on his own terms.
    SI.com, 17 May 2018
  • After a 10-year hiatus, the enfant terrible of gay fiction, Dennis Cooper, returns with I Wished, which may just be his most surreal, disturbing, vulnerable work yet (which is saying a lot).
    Vogue, 11 Aug. 2021
  • Martin Shkreli burst on the scene as an enfant terrible, a securities savant who was working on Wall Street at 17, set up his own hedge fund at 23, and launched the biotech company Retrophin after teaching himself biology.
    Patricia Hurtad, chicagotribune.com, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Elon Musk does relish playing to the crowd as the enfant terrible of auto manufacturing, generating an insulating admiration from his fans, but Kanye and Jay-Z are truly in a bind.
    New York Times, 5 Apr. 2022
  • So will obstacle race’s enfant terrible be able to invade American exercise's latest trend?
    Gabriel Baumgaertner, SI.com, 5 Sep. 2017
  • Hopper, the movies’ enfant terrible, and Hayward, the taste-making daughter of showbiz royalty, made for one of Hollywood’s more unlikely yet influential power couples during the 1960s.
    Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'enfant terrible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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