minced meat
1. a. Meat cut or chopped up very small.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. ciii. 146 Chopte or minsed meate. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy iii. xi. 90 b, Pies of minced meate, and rice. 1626 Bacon Sylva §46 With a good strong Chopping-knife, mince the two Capons..as small as ordinary Minced Meat. 1839 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 123 Stuffed with rice and minced meat. |
b. = mincemeat 1 b. Also attrib. rare or Obs.
| 1762 W. Gelleroy Lond. Cook 236 Mix your minced meat and sweetmeats accordingly. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 235 The apple-room, the pear-bin, the cheese-loft, the minced-meat closet were household words. 1885 in Cassell's Encycl. Dict. |
2. fig. Any thing cut up very small; esp. in phrases: see mincemeat 2.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, xxxiv, Neighbour Kings..Hee Courts by his Ambassadors; and fitts with a new minc't-meat, seueral appetites. 1668 Dryden Evening's Love iv. ii, The sun and moon, and those little minced-meats of them. 1772 Nugent Hist. Fr. Gerund II. 208 So as to displume him,..so, in short, as to make minced-meat of him. 1898 A. Balfour By Stroke of Sword xxi. Father Miguel..was straightway resolved into minced meat. |