Definition of "demimonde" []

• A class of women kept by wealthy lovers or protectors. (noun)
• Women prostitutes considered as a group. (noun)
• A group whose respectability is dubious or whose success is marginal: the literary demimonde of ghost writers, hacks, and publicists. Also called demiworld. (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.

• "Where else but San Francisco would an underground gourmet produce market become the destination for the downtown demimonde to purchase kombucha and bergamot marmalade on their weekend nights?"
• "Perfect blocking turned the stage's perimeters and centers into a spacious feline demimonde through which to enact a spiritual ceremony that felt like a combination of West Side Story, Woodstock, and Stonehenge."
• "In 11 volumes published between 1888 and 1894, and many years later widely published in a condensed edition, the narrator's adventures in the London demimonde are narrated in such detail as ultimately to become tiresome rather than titillating."