Definition of "ci-devant" [ci•-de•vant]

• Former. (adjective)

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.

• "Peculiar things have been happening to the thread dedicated to the ci-devant Attorney General, which was opened yesterday, was inaccessible for most of today, reappeared and has now vanished for good."
• "J'ignore également si quelqu'un de ceux dont j'ai fait mention ci-devant, auroit composé quelque autre ouvrage sur le même sujet."
• "Politically, he protected the ci-devant nobles, and prevented, to the extent of his power, the sale of the lands and property of the emigres; commercially, he furnished the Republican armies with two or three thousand puncheons of white wine, and took his pay in splendid fields belonging to a community of women whose lands had been reserved for the last lot."