1. The practice or custom of a married woman having a male companion or lover, especially in 18th-century Italian society.
Usage: archaic; historical; chiefly Italian context

Examples

• Cicisbeism was a socially accepted practice among the Venetian nobility during the 1700s.
• The novel explores the customs of cicisbeism in 18th-century Italy.
• Historians have documented cicisbeism as a peculiar institution of Italian aristocratic life.
• The protagonist's involvement in cicisbeism scandalized her conservative family.
• Cicisbeism reflected the complex social arrangements of European high society in that era.