belle dame sans merci

English

Etymology

From French [Term?] (literally “beautiful woman without mercy”). La Belle Dame sans Merci is the title of a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819; this was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier, La Belle Dame sans Mercy.

Noun

belle dame sans merci (plural belles dames sans merci)

1. (literature) A beautiful woman who seduces a man and then consigns him to an unpleasant fate.

See also

• ice queen