Definition of "bon vivant" [bon• vi•vant]

• A person with refined taste, especially one who enjoys superb food and drink. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In this connection he spoke of John Fiske and his contributions to literature, telling of the surprise he felt on first meeting Fiske at Harvard, to see the look of the bon vivant in one in whom the intellectual and the spiritual were so prominent."
• "At Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, he had won a great name as a bon vivant and as an obliging host."
• "“Even in his school-days, Saint-Hilaire was a bon vivant, but a bon vivant of a rather rare type, a person of tremendous distinction  …  ”"