▪ I. fricassee, n.
(frɪkəˈsiː, ˈfrɪ-)
Forms: 6–7 fricase, fricacy, -ie, 6–8 fricasy, (7 frycase, fricace, fregacy), 7 fricassie, (frigasie), (8 fricasey, frigacy, frigusee), 7–9 fricassé, 7–9 fricasee, 7– fricassee.
[a. F. fricassée, f. fricasser to mince and cook in sauce; of unknown origin.]
1. Meat sliced and fried or stewed and served with sauce. Now usually a ragout of small animals or birds cut in pieces.
| 1568 North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. (1619) 624 That hee coulde make seuen manner of fricasies. 1597 2nd Pt. Gd. Hus-wiues Jewell B ij, For fricasies of a lambes head and purtenance. 1656 Perfect Eng. Cooke 3 To make a Fregacy of Lamb or Veal. 1678 J. Phillips Tavernier's Trav., Persia iii. i. 101 Little Birds..of which we caught enow to make a lusty Fricassie. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) I. 263 A duck, which was hot at dinner, was brought cold in the evening, the next day served up as a fricassee. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 25 A fowl, in some sort of delicate fricasee. |
| fig. a 1657 Lovelace Lucasta (1659) 80 Hotter than all the rosted Cooks you sat To dresse the fricace of your Alphabet. 1861 Thornbury Turner I. 300 His confused and unequal picture of the ‘Field of Waterloo’..a perfect fricassee of ill-drawn lumps of figures. |
† 2. (See quot. 1611.) Obs. rare—1.
| c 1575 Life Ld. Grey (Camden) 30 It was resolved..to make a fricoisie within the bullckwarck, and prezently too withdrawe all from thence..and then too have blowen it up whoale. [1611 Cotgr., Fricassee.. a kind of charge for a Morter, or murdering peece, of stones, bullets, nailes, and peeces of old yron closed together with grease, and gun⁓powder.] |
† 3. A kind of dance: see quot. Obs. rare—1.
| 1775 Mrs. Harris in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870) I. 294 A new dance at the Festino, called the Fricasée..begins with an affront, then they fight and fire pistols, then they are reconciled, embrace, and so ends the dance. |
▪ II. fricassee, v.
(frɪkəˈsiː, ˈfrɪ-)
[f. prec. n. Cf. F. fricasser.]
trans. To make a fricassee of; to dress as a fricassee. Also transf.
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 10 The Sun..did so scald us without, as we were in a fitter condition to be fricased for the Padres dinner, than to eat any dinner our selves. 1671 Eachard Observ. Answ. Cont. Clergy (1696) 63 Common sense and truth will not down with them unless they be hash'd and fricassed. 1724 Compl. Fam. Piece i. ii. 127 You may fricasy it, or fry it as you do Veal. 1788 Ld. Auckland Diary Corr. 1861 II. 76 They are all fried and fricasseed by the sun at Madrid. 1817 Keats Lett. Wks. 1889 III. 72, I would have..fricaseed..her radishes..ragouted her onions. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. viii, We cannot afford to be both scalped by Indians or fricasseed by French. 1874 Cooke Fungi 98 Sparassis crispa..In Austria it is fricasseed with butter and herbs. |
| fig. 1719 D'Urfey Pills II. 2 He Trills, and Gapes, and Struts, And Fricassee's the Notes. |
Hence fricasseed ppl. a., lit. and fig.
| 1672 R. Wild Declar. Lib. Consc. 9 All manner of Rost, boyl'd..friggassi'd, carbonado'd sinners of both sexes. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) I. 4 By three I had got sat down to my dinner upon a fricassee'd chicken. 1859 Jephson Brittany v. 54 A breakfast of..fricasseed chicken [etc.]. |