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mince

 - 3 dictionary results
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mince

  [mins] verb, minced, minc⋅ing, noun
Use mince in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to cut or chop into very small pieces.
2. to soften, moderate, or weaken (one's words), esp. for the sake of decorum or courtesy.
3. to perform or utter with affected elegance.
4. to subdivide minutely, as land or a topic for study.
–verb (used without object)
5. to walk or move with short, affectedly dainty steps.
6. Archaic. to act or speak with affected elegance.
–noun
7. something cut up very small; mincemeat.
—Idiom
8. not mince words or matters, to speak directly and frankly; be blunt or outspoken: He was angry and didn't mince words.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME mincen < MF minc(i)er < VL *minūtiāre to mince; see minute 2

Related forms:
mincer, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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mince   (mĭns)   
v.   minced, minc·ing, minc·es

v.   tr.

    1. To cut or chop into very small pieces.

    2. To subdivide (land, for example) into minute parts.

  2. To pronounce in an affected way, as with studied elegance and refinement.

  3. To moderate or restrain (words) for the sake of politeness and decorum; euphemize: Don't mince words: say what you mean.

v.   intr.

  1. To walk with very short steps or with exaggerated primness.

  2. To speak in an affected way.

n.  Finely chopped food, especially mincemeat.

[Middle English mincen, from Old French mincier, from Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre, from Latin minūtia, smallness; see minutia.]
minc'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

mince 
1381, from O.Fr. mincier "make into small pieces," from V.L. *minutiare "make small," from L.L. minutiæ "small bits," from L. minutus "small" (see minute). Mincemeat is first attested 1663 (originally in the fig. sense of what someone plans to make of his enemy), an alteration of earlier minced meat (1578). Mince-pie is attested from c.1600; as rhyming slang for "eye" it is attested from 1857. Mincing "affectedly dainty" is first attested 1530, probably originally in ref. to speech, when words were "clipped" to affect elegance, or to walking with short steps.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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