mince-ˈpie
[Alteration of minced-pie: see mince v. 7 b.]
1. A pie containing mincemeat (see mincemeat 1 b).
Usually, one of the small pies (now commonly round, but cf. quots. 1807 below and 1753 s.v. minced-pie) which form a prominent part of English Christmas fare.
| α 1600 [see 4]. 1661–2 Pepys Diary 6 Jan., We had, besides a good chine of beef and other good cheer, eighteen mince pies in a dish, the number of the years that he hath been married. 1673 Shadwell Epsom Wells iv. Wks. 1720 II. 247 For currants to make mince-pyes with. 1711–12 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 2 Jan., I see nothing here like Christmas, except brawn and mince-pies in places where I dine. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 116 Lent Mince Pies. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. III. 384 Old bridges dangerously narrow, and angles in them like the corners of an English mince-pie, for the foot-passengers to take shelter in. a 1825 Parr in Chambers Bk. Days (1864) II. 755/2 Please to say Christmas-pie, not mince-pie; mince-pie is puritanical. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. xix. 167 There was roast pork and mince-pies, and a bottle of wine. |
| β 1846 M. A. Richardson Local Histor. Table-bk. VIII. 377 'Tis I that's to..send thee to Satan to make minch Pies. 1889 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Minch-pie, a mince-pie. It is said that mince-pies and minch-pies are not quite the same. Minch-pies, we are told, have meat in their composition; mince-pies have not. |
2. transf. A yew-tree or other shrub cut or trimmed to the shape of a mince-pie.
| 1756 Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) III. 435 The gardens laid out in the old-fashioned way of mince-pies, arbours, and sugarloaf yews. |
3. Rhyming slang. An eye. (Usu. in
pl.)
| 1857 ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 13 Mince pies, eyes. 1892 Sporting Times 29 Oct. 1/2 And I smiled as I closed my two mince-pies. 1893 Crook & Daly Jerusalem's Dead (song) 5 My mince-pies are waterin' jes like a pump. 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xvii. 229 He thinks he'll never be able t' shut his mince pies again. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 418 Got a prime pair of mincepies, no kid. 1928 M. C. Sharpe Chicago May xxxi. 288/1 Mince pies, eyes. |
4. attrib. and
Comb.| 1600 Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood ii. 8 Or Mincepie-like Ile mangle out the slaue. 1906 Month Jan. 35 Pitt's ‘mince-pie’ Administrations, as they were sarcastically called. |