subdeb

[ suhb-deb ]

noun

, Informal.

1. a subdebutante.
2. any girl in her teens.

Word History and Origins

Origin of subdeb¹

First recorded in 1915–20; shortened form

Example Sentences

He knew that businessmen got as "kittenish as a Victorian subdeb" when caught in the public eye but was not prepared for how hesitant corporations were to open their doors.

From Time Magazine Archive

Architect Gordon Bunshaft, chief designer and partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has built a small concrete and marble pavilion overlooking an inshore bay, and Edward Durell Stone remodeled a 21-room, grey-shingled elephant on a dune where Jacqueline Kennedy used to play when she was a subdeb Bouvier.

From Time Magazine Archive

After hearing the story, a grand jury returned indictments against 13 young social lions and one girl, Subdeb Mimi Russell, 17, daughter of Vogue Publisher Edwin Russell.

From Time Magazine Archive

No man to run from an honest dollar, he has made a huge estate in New York's Thousand Islands not only a luxurious nook for himself, his wife and two subdeb daughters, but a profitable attraction for summer tourists, who pay 35� a head to view its splendors.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mary Lee Davis, 15, Philadelphia subdeb, niece of Princess Grace of Monaco; and John Paul Jones Jr., 18, a direct descendant of the Revolutionary War hero; after an Aug. 28 elopement touched off a nationwide police hunt that eventually turned up the lovers in Des Moines, where a judge waived Iowa's minimum-age requirement of 16; in Des Moines.

From Time Magazine Archive