billet-doux

[ bil-ey-doo, bil-ee-; French bee-yey-doo ]

/ ˈbɪl eɪˈdu, ˈbɪl i-; French bi yeɪˈdu /

a love letter.

Origin of billet-doux

1665–75; < French: literally, sweet note. See billet¹, douce

billbug, billed, biller, billerica, billet, billet-doux, billethead, billety, billfish, billfold, billfolder

A papal excommunication is a billet-doux compared to the Commination of Jugana.

The Lock And Key Library |Various
Adonis calls for a "pick-me-up" before he has strength enough to answer a billet-doux from Venus.

Kenelm Chillingly, Complete |Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Oh, you have not heard of the billet-doux that Schwarzfelder has written you?

In Hostile Red |Joseph Altsheler
We may fancy Madame La Croix slyly handing the billet-doux to the daughter, under the unsuspecting mother's very eyes.

The Anglo-French Entente in the Seventeenth Century |Charles Bastide

Remember that this is the first time I ever wrote a billet-doux, and I dont know how they are usually expressed.

The Bashful Lover (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIX) |Charles Paul de Kock

billet-doux

/ (ˌbɪlɪˈduː, French bijɛdu) /

old-fashioned, or jocular a love letter

C17: from French, literally: a sweet letter, from billet (see billet 1) + doux sweet, from Latin dulcis