Definition of "propos" [propos]

• A proposition; statement. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Thus Flora on one occasion had been reduced to rage and despair, had her most secret feelings lacerated, had obtained a view of the utmost baseness to which common human nature can descend -- I won't say _a propos de bottes_ as the French would excellently put it but literally _a propos_ of some mislaid cheap lace trimmings for a nightgown the romping one was making for herself."
• "Flora on one occasion had been reduced to rage and despair, had her most secret feelings lacerated, had obtained a view of the utmost baseness to which common human nature can descend -- I won't say _a propos de bottes_ as the French would excellently put it, but literally _a propos_ of some mislaid cheap lace trimmings for a nightgown the romping one was making for herself."
• "There are numerous pun formats including knock-knock jokes and the beloved malapropisms, the latter immortalized in the character of Mrs. Malaprop (from the French mal à propos, meaning inappropriate) in Richard Sheridan's 1755 comedy The Rivals."