Word: cheese Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Latin cāseusbor. Proto-Germanic *kāsijaz Proto-West Germanic *kāsī Old English ċīese Middle English chese English cheese From Middle English chese, from Anglian Old English ċīese, from Proto-West Germanic *kāsī, borrowed from Latin cāseus. Doublet of queso. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Síes (“cheese”), West Frisian tsiis (“cheese”), Dutch kaas (“cheese”), German Low German Kees (“cheese”), German Käse (“cheese”). Pronunciation: /t͡ʃiːz/, /t͡ʃiz/ 1. A dairy product made from curdled or cultured milk. Labels: uncountable 2. Any particular variety of cheese. Labels: countable 3. A piece of cheese, especially one moulded into a large round shape during manufacture. Labels: countable Example: He had a gloating expression on his face, and was perseveringly rolling a large cheese along the middle of the road. Example: In the tomographic images of the 30-day-old cheeses, the gantry had to be removed with image processing techniques: first, the binarised image (grey level larger than 10⁴) was eroded with a disk of three pixels. 4. A thick variety of jam (fruit preserve), as distinguished from a thinner variety (sometimes called jelly) Labels: UK, uncountable Example: 1807, Nutt, F. (1807). The Complete Confectioner: Or, The Whole Art of Confectionary Made Easy: Containing, Among a Variety of Useful Matter, the Art of Making the Various Kinds of Biscuits, Drops ... as Also the Most Approved Method of Making Cheeses, Puddings, Cakes &c. in 250 Cheap and Fashionable Receipts. The Result of Many Years Experience with the Celebrated Negri and Witten. United Kingdom: reprinted, for Richard Scott and sold at his bookstore, no. 243 Pearl-street. p.82-3, No.244. Damson Cheese: “Pick the damsons free from stalks···You may make plum or bullace cheese in the same way···” 5. A substance resembling cream cheese, such as lemon cheese Labels: countable, uncountable 6. That which is melodramatic, overly emotional, or cliché, i.e. cheesy. Labels: colloquial, uncountable Example: It's time to add some cheese to this action burger! Every genre has them, everybody loves them ... it's the parodies! Example: A film ostensibly about the lead singer of a hair metal band killing innocent people on a future planet Earth, Alienator is the epitome of low-budget cheese. 7. Money. Labels: slang, uncountable 8. In skittles, the roughly ovoid object that is thrown to knock down the skittles. Labels: UK, countable 9. A fastball. Labels: slang, uncountable 10. A dangerous mixture of black tar heroin and crushed Tylenol PM tablets. The resulting powder resembles grated cheese and is snorted. Labels: slang, uncountable 11. Smegma. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable, vulgar 12. Holed pattern of circuitry to decrease pattern density. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 2006, US Patent 7458053, International Business Machines Corporation It is known in the art to insert features that are electrically inactive (“fill structures”) into a layout to increase layout pattern density or and to remove features from the layout (“cheese structures”) to decrease layout pattern density. 13. A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the shape of a cheese. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Apple pulp is poured into the cloth until the frame is full. The edges of the cloth are folded over the pulp forming a cloth-bound bed of apple pulp, called a 'cheese' as it resembles the European-style bound cheese. The frame is removed, a divider is placed on the 'cheese' and another 'cheese' is built on top of the first, and so on. 14. The flat, circular, mucilaginous fruit of dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia) or marshmallow (Althaea officinalis). Labels: countable, uncountable 15. A low curtsey; so called on account of the cheese shape assumed by a woman's dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The time was morning; the young lady was not fifteen; her spirits were as the spirits of a fawn in May; her tour of duty for the day was either not come, or was gone; and, finding herself alone in a spacious room, what more reasonable thing could she do than amuse herself with making cheeses? that is, whirling round, according to a fashion practised by young ladies both in France and England, and pirouetting until the petticoat is inflated like a balloon, and then sinking into a courtesy. Example: "I thank your ladyship, I don't like tanzing, and I don't like cards," says Miss Hester, tossing up her head; and, dropping a curtsey like a "cheese," she strutted away from the Countess's table.