MINCE

mince

(noun) food chopped into small bits; “a mince of mushrooms”

mince, soften, moderate

(verb) make less severe or harsh; “He moderated his tone when the students burst out in tears”

mince

(verb) cut into small pieces; “mince the garlic”

mince

(verb) walk daintily; “She minced down the street”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

mince (countable and uncountable, plural minces)

(uncountable) Finely chopped meat.

(uncountable) Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.

(countable) An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.

(countable) An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.

(countable, Cockney rhyming slang, mostly, in the plural) An eye (from mince pie).

Verb

mince (third-person singular simple present minces, present participle mincing, simple past and past participle minced)

(transitive) To make less; make small.

(transitive) To lessen; diminish; to diminish in speaking; speak of lightly or slightingly; minimise.

Synonym: Thesaurus:diminish

(transitive, rare) To effect mincingly.

(transitive, cooking) To cut into very small pieces; to chop fine.

(archaic, transitive, figuratively) To suppress or weaken the force of

Synonyms: extenuate, palliate, weaken

To say or utter vaguely, not directly or frankly

(transitive) To affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.

(intransitive) To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner.

(intransitive) To act or talk with affected nicety; to affect delicacy in manner.

Usage notes

Current usage in the sense of “say or utter vaguely” is mostly limited to the phrase “mince words”; e.g, “I won't mince words with you”.

Source: Wiktionary

Mince, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Minced; p. pr. & vb. n. Minging.] Etym: [AS. minsian to grow less, dwindle, fr. min small; akin to G. minder less, Goth. minniza less, mins less, adv., L. minor, adj. (cf. Minor); or more likely fr. F. mincer to mince, prob. from (assumed) LL. minutiare. Minish.]

1. To cut into very small pieces; to chop fine; to hash; as, to mince meat. Bacon.

2. To suppress or weaken the force of; to extenuate; to palliate; to tell by degrees, instead of directly and frankly; to clip, as words or expressions; to utter half and keep back half of. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say -- "I love you." Shak. Siren, now mince the sin, And mollify damnation with a phrase. Dryden. If, to mince his meaning, I had either omitted some part of what he said, or taken from the strength of his expression, I certainly had wronged him. Dryden.

3. To affect; to make a parade of. [R.] Shak.

Mince, v. i.

1. To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner. The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,... mincing as they go. Is. iii. 16. I 'll... turn two mincing steps Into a manly stride. Shak.

2. To act or talk with affected nicety; to affect delicacy in manner.

Mince, n.

Definition: A short, precise step; an affected manner.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition