English

Adverb

faute de mieux ‎(comparative more faute de mieux, superlative most faute de mieux)

1. For want of something better; for lack of an alternative.
   • 1823, "Select Society, With Observations on the Modern Art of Matchmaking", in The New Monthly Magazine,by C. M., pub. E. W. Allen, , volume 8 pages 91-92:

     Then, Alas! any body was company for every body and the first lord of the land did not think it shame, faute de mieux, to take up with the conversation of his butler, or his game-keeper, over a tankard; while the young ladies, faute de tout, danced "Bobbing Joan," with the rest of the domestics in the servants' hall.

   • 1998, “homosexuality”, in Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (editors), The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilisation, Oxford (2004), ISBN 9780198609582, page 353:

     Among the explanations commonly advanced are: (1) Greek males were driven to seek romance and sexual gratification with other males, faute de mieux, by the seclusion and enforced intellectual impoverishment of *women; (2) […]

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fot də mjø/

Adverb

faute de mieux

1. for want of something better, faute de mieux
   • 1572 Henri Lancelot Voisin de la Popelinière, La vraye et entière Histoire des Troubles, et Choses memorables avenues tant en France qu'en Flandres, & pays circonuoisins, depuis l'an 1562, Davantes:

     …sans merite des gestes de quelque nation: faut de mieux toute le posterite…