a. (sb.) [Fr., = heretofore, formerly.]
1. Former, ‘late’; that was formerly.
1790. Burns, Let. Mrs. Dunlop, 8 Aug. A ci-devant friend of mine.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. App. B. The ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens.
1847. Longf., Ev., II. iii. 83. They marvelled to see the wealth of the ci-devant blacksmith.
2. sb. In the language of the French Revolution, a man of rank, i.e., one formerly such, the Republic having suppressed distinctions of nobility.
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc., 152. Give me the lives of … three hundred thousand ci-devants and aristocrats.
