margarine
(ˈmɑːgəriːn, mɑːdʒəˈriːn)
[a. F. margarine, a misapplication of the chemical term: see prec.]
a. A substance made from edible oils and meat fats with water or skimmed milk, used as a spread on bread, etc., and as a cooking fat. Cf. butterine.
| 1873 U.S. Patent Specif. No. 146012. 1876 World V. No. 111. 12 Margarine is no novelty; it was brought out two or three years ago in Paris. 1887 Earl Wemyss in Times 4 Aug. 8/3 On Friday next the great fight ‘Butterine versus Margarine’ will come off in the Lords. 1888 Times 3 Jan. 4/5 After adopting successively the names ‘oleomargarine’, ‘butterine’, and ‘margarine’, Parliament finally, after several struggles, resolved on the last. Ibid. 9/4 Margarine, as we formally record this morning, has begun its actual legislative existence. 1888 Lancet 14 Jan. 83/1 The word ‘margarine’ is, from a scientific point of view, inappropriate. 1890 [see filled ppl. a. 1 b]. 1907 Act 7 Edw. VII c. 21 §13 For the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act and this Act the expression ‘margarine’ shall mean any article of food, whether mixed with butter or not, which resembles butter and is not milk-blended butter. 1960 A. E. Bender Dict. Nutrition 79/1 Margarine... Compulsorily fortified in many countries (and voluntarily in most) with vitamins A and D, so that it is nutritionally equal to butter. 1963 Which? July 211/1 Margarine is made from a selection of vegetable oils, sometimes whale or fish oil, and often lard, usually with skimmed milk, and water. 1975 Listener 16 Jan. 80/3 Sheep's head..mixed..with minced onion and margarine. |
b. attrib., as margarine factory, margarine works; margarine Act, Act 50 & 51 Vict. (1887) c. 29, by which the name margarine is given to butter imitations; margarine-cheese (see quots.).
| 1887 Act 50 & 51 Vict. c. 29 §1 This Act may be cited as the Margarine Act, 1887. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 3/2 Other particulars about the margarine factories. 1899 Act 62 & 63 Vict. c. 51 §25 The expression ‘margarine-cheese’ means any substance, whether compound or otherwise, which is prepared in imitation of cheese, and which contains fat not derived from milk. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 93/2 From America cheese has come into the English market, made from skim-milk which has again been provided with fatty matter, generally emulsified margarine—hence the term ‘margarine cheese’ or ‘filled cheese’. 1909 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 24/1 Margarine works are equipped with cooling machinery. |
c. attrib. = sham, ‘bogus’.
| 1891 F. S. Haden in 19th Cent. May 780 One of those things which I fear I must call a ‘margarine’ substitute for an etching. 1897 Sir W. Harcourt in Daily News 26 Nov. 3/3 Take care you do not get margarine Liberalism. |
Hence margaˈrine v. trans., to smear or spread (bread) with margarine; margarined ppl. a.
| 1918 Punch 15 May 315 She knows which side her bread's margarined. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey iii. iv. 243 ‘Well,’ he said, over their cocoa and margarined bread: ‘I must see Mr. Mont, that's certain.’ 1960 D. Storey This Sporting Life ii. i. 159 She..began to margarine the bread. |