# molasses
## English
### Etymology 1

From Portuguese melaços or Spanish melazos, from Late Latin mellacium (“must, honey-sweet thing”), from mel (“honey”) + -āceus (“-aceous”) + -ium, q.v. Some alternative forms derived or influenced by Spanish melaza and French mélasse, conjectured to derive from unattested Late Latin mellacea, from mel + -ācea.

#### Alternative forms

* mollasses, malasses, merlaasses, molassey, molassy, melasus, molassos, malassoes, malassos, molossus, melasses, mallassus, malosses, mellasses, milasses, molassers, molossoes, molossos, mullasses, molosses, melossus, mollossus, molossas, molases, mellosses, moloses, merlassers, millasses, molassisis

#### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: [məˈlæ.sɪz], [mɵˈlæ.sɪz]
* Audio (US):(file)
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: [məˈlæ.sɪz], /məʊˈlasɪz/, /məˈlasɪz/
* (Scots) IPA: /məˈlasɪz/
* Rhymes: -æsɪz

#### Noun

molasses (usually uncountable, singular molass)
* A thick, sweet syrup drained from sugarcane, especially (Canada, US) the still thicker and sweeter syrup produced by boiling down raw molasses.
** 1907 February 2, The Chronicle, Adelaide, page 50, column 2:Well, we had our breakfast of ship's bread and molasses, washed down with cannikins of something liquid - but not lovely.
** 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
* (US) Any similarly thick and sweet syrup produced by boiling down fruit juices, tree saps, etc., especially concentrated maple syrup.
** 1777 Sept. 13, Manessah Cutler, Journal, s.v.:
    Boiled some cornstalk juice into molasses.
* (figuratively) Anything considered figuratively sweet, especially sweet words.
    He really poured on the molasses, charming his audience and changing more than a few votes.
** 1925, Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, volume I, page 127:‘You're the cutest thing here,’ whispered Clyde, hugging her fondly. ‘Gee, but you can pour on the molasses, kid, when you want to,’ she called out loud.
** 1972 Nov. 26, New York Times Book Review, p. 1:
    ...the mournful molasses of his prose...
* (figuratively) Something which moves or works extremely slowly.
** 1990, Norman Schreiber, Your Home Office, New York, N.Y.: Perennial Library, →ISBN, page 91:Though faster than typing, the daisy wheel is molasses compared to dot matrix printers.
** 2022, Julia Glass, Vigil Harbor, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 161:Of course, time was molasses in the cold months that bracketed that very long year; time was monotony. When all days are the same, memory caves in on itself.
** 2023 March 3, Shira Ovide, “Four mistakes you’re making that slow down your internet”, in The Washington Post‎, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 March 2023:It's worthwhile starting with the lowest-tier plan from your provider. If your internet is molasses, then you might consider an upgrade.
* (Scotland, obsolete) plural of molass: whiskey made from molasses.
* (Scotland, rare, obsolete) Synonym of molass: whiskey made from molasses.

##### Usage notes

* Likely adopted in plural form because of its origin in pieces left over from sugar processing, although now usually construed as a singular or uncountable liquid except in some southern and southern-influenced dialects of American English.

##### Synonyms

* (concentrated sugarcane syrup): long sweetening, treacle, theriac, sorghum syrup, cane syrup
* (things considered figuratively sweet): See sugar and honey

##### Hyponyms

* (any sweet concentrated syrup): maple syrup

##### Derived terms

* like molasses
* like molasses in January
* maple molasses
* molasses acid
* molasses ale
* molasses barrel
* molasses beer
* molasses bird
* molasses brandy
* molasses cake
* molasses candy
* molasses cane
* molasses cask
* molasses cistern
* molasses cookie
* molasses face
* molasses gate
* molasses gingerbread
* molasses grass
* molasses hogshead
* molasses house
* molasses jug
* molasseslike
* molasses rum
* molasses scone
* molasses settlings
* molasses spirit
* molasses taffy
* molasses tank
* molasses tierce
* molassied
* molassy
* pomegranate molasses
* slow as molasses
* slow as molasses in January
* slower than molasses
* slower than molasses in January
* sorghum molasses
* thick as molasses

##### Translations
#### Verb

molasses
* (obsolete) third-person singular simple present indicative of molass

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /məˈlæsɪz/, /məˈlɑsɪz/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /məʊlasɪz/, /məˈlasɪz/

#### Noun

molasses
* (geology) plural of molasse

### References

* “molasses, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
* “molass, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
* “† molass, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
* “molasse, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
* “molasses”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “molasses”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.