peppered, ppl. a.
(ˈpɛpəd)
[f. pepper v. + -ed1.]
a. Sprinkled or seasoned with pepper; sprinkled with small dots like grains of pepper; pelted with shot, etc.: see the verb.
| 1581 Satir. Poems Reform. xliv. 200 The peperit beif can tailȝe be the threid. 1620 Venner Via Recta (1650) 259 Salt and peppered meats. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. (1737) 217. 1795 Sporting Mag. V. 49 The peppered tails returned as they came. 1860 O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. i, A shelf of peppered sheepskin reprints. 1873 Spectator 22 Feb. 237/1 A bit of ‘peppered tongue’, not worth an answer, and hardly worth an action. |
b. peppered moth, the popular name of the geometrid moth, Biston betularia, which is usually light-coloured with darker flecks.
| 1832 Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & Moths Index. 1903 F. E. Hulme Butterflies & Moths vi. 225 The insect we have represented..is..called the Peppered Moth, or, in the words of some old entomologists, the Pepper and Salt. 1915, 1970 [see melanic a. 2]. 1972 Countryman LXXVII. ii. 131 Bernard Kettlewell's classic study of the peppered moth as an example of natural selection in action is finding its way into the text books. 1975 Sci. Amer. Jan. 90/1 Of more than 700 species of larger moths found throughout the British Isles, the peppered moth (Biston betularia) is surely the best-known to students of evolution. |
c. peppered steak = pepper steak.
| 1960 J. Donon Classic French Cuisine v. 130 (heading) Steak au Poivre (Peppered Steak). 1973 D. MacKenzie Postscript to Dead Let. 30 A Czech couple who serve the best peppered steak in town. 1978 Times 4 Mar. 11/5 Stars in Soho..does a good peppered steak ({pstlg}3·25). |