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mince
- 6 dictionary resultsmince
[mins]
verb, minced, minc⋅ing, noun –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
—Idiom| 7. | something cut up very small; mincemeat. |
| 8. | not mince words or matters, to speak directly and frankly; be blunt or outspoken: He was angry and didn't mince words. |
Related forms:
mincer, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To mince
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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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Mince
Mince\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Minced; p. pr. & vb. n. Minging.] [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. ????. See 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
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
Mince\, n. A short, precise step; an affected manner.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : mince
Spanish:
picar,
German:
kleinhacken,
Japanese:
切り刻む
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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