Wiktionary

cheese

See also: Cheese

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Cheese for sale in a market.
 
Feta, a Greek cheese.

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-West Germanic *kāsī
    Old English ċīese
    Middle English chese
    English cheese

    From Middle English chese, from Old English ċīese, specifically the Anglian form ċēse, 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”).

    Noun

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    cheese (countable and uncountable, plural cheeses or (archaic) cheesen)

    2. (uncountable) A dairy product made from curdled or cultured milk.
    3. (countable) Any particular variety of cheese.
    4. (countable) A piece of cheese, especially one moulded into a large round shape during manufacture.
      • 2015 August, Dominik Guggisberg et al., “Mechanism and control of the eye formation in cheese”, in International Dairy Journal‎[2], volume 47, Elsevier, →DOI, pages 118–127:
        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.
    5. (uncountable, UK) A thick variety of jam (fruit preserve), as distinguished from a thinner variety (sometimes called jelly)
      • 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···”
    6. A substance resembling cream cheese, such as lemon cheese
    7. (uncountable, colloquial) That which is melodramatic, overly emotional, or cliché, i.e. cheesy.
      • 2012, Katrina Hill, Action Movie Freak, page 117:
        It's time to add some cheese to this action burger! Every genre has them, everybody loves them ... it's the parodies!
      • 2012 June 18, Ryan Lambie, “10 delightfully cheesy 90s sci-fi movie trailers”, in Den of Geek!‎[3], archived from the original on 7 July 2017:
        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.
    8. (uncountable, slang) Money.
    9. (countable, UK) In skittles, the roughly ovoid object that is thrown to knock down the skittles.
    10. (uncountable, slang, baseball) A fastball.
    11. (uncountable, slang) A dangerous mixture of black tar heroin and crushed Tylenol PM tablets. The resulting powder resembles grated cheese and is snorted.
    12. (vulgar, slang) Smegma.
    13. (technology) Holed pattern of circuitry to decrease pattern density.
      • 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.
    14. A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the shape of a cheese.
      • 2011, P. Rutledge, “Production of Non-Fermented Fruit Products”, in D. Arthey, P.R. Ashurst, editors, Fruit Processing, →ISBN, page 77:
        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.
    15. The flat, circular, mucilaginous fruit of dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia) or marshmallow (Althaea officinalis).
    16. 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.
      • 1853, Thomas De Quincey, “I Enter the World”, in Autobiographic Sketches:
        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.
      • 1857, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 34, in The Virginians:
        "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.
      • 1897, Stanley John Weyman, “The Deanery Ball”, in For the Cause:
        Mrs. Curzon-Bowlby, thus deserted in the middle of the room, dropped the prettiest of "cheeses," and broke into a merry peal of unaffected laughter.
    Synonyms
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    Antonyms
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    • (antonym(s) of “circuitry”): fill (“dummy pattern to increase pattern density”)
    Hyponyms
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    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    • Tok Pisin: sis
    Borrowings
    Translations
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    See also
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    Verb

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    cheese (third-person singular simple present cheeses, present participle cheesing, simple past and past participle cheesed)

    1. To prepare curds for making cheese.
    2. (technology) To make holes in a pattern of circuitry to decrease pattern density.
    3. (slang) To smile excessively, as for a camera.
      • 2013, Michael W. Eagle II (lyrics and music), “Degrassi Picture Day” (track 1), in Sir Rockabye, performed by Open Mike Eagle and Busdriver:
        Yeah, a couple homegirls cheese they little faces off / They happy cause they finally got they braces off
      • 2020, Bryan Washington, Memorial, Atlantic Books (2021), page 189:
        Now Kunihiko sprinted back up the stairs. Exploded through the bar with three sacks of convenience store chicken, cheesing from ear to ear.
    Derived terms
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    Etymology 2

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    Perhaps an alteration of cheers.

    Interjection

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    cheese!

    1. (photography) Said while being photographed, to give the impression of smiling.
      Say "cheese"! ... and there we are!
    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    Translations
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    Etymology 3

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    Though commonly claimed to be a borrowing of Persian چیز (čiz, “thing”), the term does not occur earliest in Anglo-Indian sources, but instead is "well recorded in British and Australian sources from the 1840s onwards".[1]

    Noun

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    cheese (uncountable)

    1. (slang) Wealth, fame, excellence, importance.
    2. (slang, dated, British India) The correct thing, of excellent quality; the ticket.
      These cheroots are the real cheese.
    Derived terms
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    References

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    1. ^ James Lambert, 2018, 'Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles' World Englishes Vol. 37, page 255. [1]

    Etymology 4

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    Etymology unknown. Possibly an alteration of cease.

    Verb

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    cheese (third-person singular simple present cheeses, present participle cheesing, simple past and past participle cheesed)

    1. (slang) To stop; to refrain from.
      Cheese it! The cops!
      Cheese your patter! (= stop talking, shut up)
    2. (slang) To anger or irritate someone, usually in combination with "off".
      All this waiting around is really cheesing me off.
    Derived terms
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    Etymology 5

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    From cheesy.

    Verb

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    cheese (third-person singular simple present cheeses, present participle cheesing, simple past and past participle cheesed)

    1. (Internet slang, gaming, transitive, intransitive) To use a controversial or unsporting tactic to gain an advantage (especially in a game.)
      You can cheese most of the game using certain exploits.
      • 1993, Alex Werner, alt.games.sf2‎[4] (Usenet):
        The term cheesing is also pretty common. However, at least originally, ticking had a more specific meaning, ie hitting someone and then throwing after they block, whereas cheesing would be anything "cheap", and thereore depended on the user [...]
      • 2000, cyber...@my-deja.com, rec.games.miniatures.warhammer‎[5] (Usenet):
        The moral of the story is, real strategy doesn't apply in WH40K. Find out where your opponent cheesed himself up and hit him there with everything you've got.
      • 2001, Samiel, rec.sport.billiard‎[6] (Usenet):
        "Cheesing" means to shoot for the 9-ball (in 9-ball) before being on the 9-ball (i.e. shooting at the 1-ball to hit the 9-ball in). Basically if you can do it, you'll win the game (but perhaps not much respect).
      • 2008, Reed Stevens, Tom Satwicz, Laurie McCarthy, “In-Game, In-Room, In-World: Reconnecting Video Game Play to the Rest of Kids’ Lives”, in Katie Salen, editor, The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning), Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, →DOI, page 54:
        For example, he was accused of "cheating" when he modified his in-game play techniques—without the use of cheat codes—but in ways that were unexpected to his opponents. Taking these actions (called cheesing by some in game play discourse) was unexpected, because the actions diverged from courses of action perceived as normal in the real-world activity the game simulated.
    2. (video games, slang) To use an unconventional, all-in strategy to take one's opponent by surprise early in the game (especially for real-time strategy games).
    Synonyms
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    • (use a surprise all-in strategy early in a game): rush, zerg

    Middle English

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    Etymology 1

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    Noun

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    cheese

    1. Alternative form of chese

    Etymology 2

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    Verb

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    cheese

    1. Alternative form of chesen
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