▪ I. filet
(ˈfɪlɪt)
Also fillet.
[a. F. filet thread.]
1. A kind of net or lace having a square mesh. Also attrib., as filet lace, filet net, filet veiling.
| 1881 C. C. Harrison Woman's Handiwork i. 82 Drawn-work, with darned filet and cut-work. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 221/1 Fillet ground, a net with absolutely square holes, similar to canvas, but more defined and ‘lacey’ in appearance. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 9 Mar. 13/2 The lace might be of cream silk filet. 1907 Daily Chron. 25 June 8/3 The new filet designs. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 24 Aug. 13/1 A nice tea-gown..with filet laces. 1908 Ibid. 8 Aug. 13/2 The square spotted filet veiling. Ibid. 28 Dec. 5/1 A brown filet net trimmed with small rosettes of velvet. 1931 Evening Standard 29 Jan. 5/3 Fadeless artificial silk filet net. 1953 M. Powys Lace & Lace-Making iv. 33 Lacis or filet, 16th century. A rare pointed pattern made for collars or to border a cover. The groundwork is the knotted filet mesh made like a fish net and with the same implements. |
2. (‖ file) Cookery. = fillet n. 6 a, c. Also in phr. filet de bœuf.
| 1841 Thackeray Misc. Ess. (1885) 385 The beefsteak cut from the filet, as is usual in France. 1861 Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 918 Entrees, Filet de Bœuf and Spanish Sauce. 1864 G. Meredith Let. 24 Feb. (1970) I. 245 Smooth flow the Sauces!—may the filets tender be! 1951 E. David French Country Cooking 114 Your beef..should be a fine piece of filet. 1962 Harper's Bazaar Aug. 69/1 Tournedos steaks cut from the tail end of a filet de boeuf. |
b. filet mignon: a slice cut from the small end of the tenderloin of beef.
| 1906 ‘O. Henry’ Four Million (1916) 67 ‘We'll have oysters to-night.’ ‘And filet mignon with champignons.’ 1960 L. Cooper Accomplices iii. iv. 176 A delightful meal—caviare, an iced consommé, a filet mignon. 1961 J. Heller Catch-22 (1962) xxii. 233 Yossarian and Orr..went..to eat shrimp cocktails and filet mignon in a very fine restaurant. |
▪ II. filet(e)
obs. form of fillet.