crown jewels
Britishplural noun
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A prized possession or asset, as in The Iliad and Odyssey are the crown jewels of ancient literature , or The software products are the company's crown jewels . This usage transfers the value of royal jewels to some other object. [Late 1800s]
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Also, family jewels . The male genitals, especially the testicles. For example, She gave the would-be mugger a hard kick in the family jewels . A slang euphemism, the term dates from the 1970s, and the variant from the early 1900s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On Tuesday, des Cars sent her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, which was accepted, following a string of scandals including the brazen theft of French crown jewels valued at $100 million in October.
From Barron's
The director of the Louvre museum in Paris has resigned, months after the high-profile theft of France's crown jewels from one of the world's most visited art galleries.
From BBC
The sums were small compared with last year’s heist of France’s crown jewels from the museum, which was valued at around $100 million.
Museum bosses have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months, after thieves stole priceless French crown jewels from the museum in broad daylight and hundreds of books were damaged in a leak.
From BBC
The two Panama container terminals were the crown jewels of the deal.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
