MINCING

mincing, niminy-piminy, prim, twee

(adjective) affectedly dainty or refined

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Verb

mincing

present participle of mince

Adjective

mincing (comparative more mincing, superlative most mincing)

Affectedly dainty.

Noun

mincing (plural mincings)

The act by which something is minced.

Source: Wiktionary


Min"cing, a.

Definition: That minces; characterized by primness or affected nicety.

MINCE

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



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Word of the Day

5 February 2025

CARE

(noun) activity involved in maintaining something in good working order; “he wrote the manual on car care”


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Coffee Trivia

The world’s most expensive coffee costs more than US$700 per kilogram. Asian palm civet – a cat-like creature in Indonesia, eats fruits, including select coffee cherries. It excretes partially digested seeds that produce a smooth, less acidic brew of coffee called kopi luwak.

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