▪ I. mince, n.
(mɪns)
[f. mince v.]
1. Minced meat; mincemeat.
| a 1850 Rossetti Dante & Circ. ii. (1874) 274 Then let them hew me to such mince As a man's limbs may make. 1863 [see hash n.1 1]. 1869 Mrs. Stowe Old-town Folks xxvii. (1870) 305 ‘We children’ were employed in chopping mince for pies. 1899 O. Seaman In Cap & Bells (1900) 84 Those pies at which you annually wince, Hearing the tale how happy months will follow Proportioned to the total mass of mince You swallow. |
2. An act of ‘mincing’ in speech or gesture.
Richardson 1837 has a
quot. in which
mince is a misprint for
minde. The sense appears in many later Dicts., and though no authority is cited, it is so completely according to analogy that it might be used without producing any sense of novelty.
3. Rhyming slang.
= mince-pie 3. (Usu. in
pl.)
| 1937 in Partridge Dict. Slang 522/1. 1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights 149 ‘I know what's on there’ said the boggie looking Solie straight in the minces. 1960 News Chron. 16 Feb. 6/5 She gives me a double glinty butchers out of those sharp minces of hers. 1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers (1964) iii. 28 ‘One pack dealer's choice,’ he says, minces all gleaming. Ibid. iv. 32 A general look of dislike in the minces, which tremble a bit in their sockets. |
▪ II. mince, v. (
mɪns)
Forms: α. 4–6
mynce, 5–6
mynse, 5
mence, (7
minze), 6–7
minse, 6–
mince; β.
dial. 5
mynsh, 7
minche, 9
minsh, 6–
minch.
[Late ME. mynce, mynsh, ad. OF. mincier, minchier (mod.F. mincer), accentual variant of menuisier:—popular L. *minūtiāre, f. L. minūtia (see minutia), f. minūtus minute a. Cf. It. minuzzare and (am)mencire.] 1. a. trans. To cut or chop (meat, etc.) small, or in little pieces.
† Also, to cut up tobacco.
| α ? c 1390 Form of Cury (1780) 12 Mynce Oynouns and cast þer to Safronn and Salte. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 18 Above þese herbus a lytul larde Smalle myncyd. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 41 Þen mence Sawge. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 400 Mynse hem [sc. partridges, etc.] smalle in þe siruppe. 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. 48 Rawe fleshe very finely minced. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle ii. i. C 3 Shee that minces Tobacco. 1693 J. Dryden in Dryden's Juvenal xiv. (1697) 353 The least Remains of which they mince, and dress It o'er again to make another Mess. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. i, [At dinner] The Wife minced a bit of Meat, then crumbled some bread on a Trencher, and placed it before me. a 1756 E. Haywood New Present (1771) 159 Mince very fine the white of a chicken. 1863 Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. xxxiv, The sergeant asked for pepper and salt; minced the food fine and made it savoury. 1887 Spon's Househ. Managem. 284 Mince the flesh of a hen lobster to the size of small dice. |
| absol. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 230 And who has to kill and skin and mince and boil and roast? The cook, I said. |
| β 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1792) I. 291 A small joint of meat,..served us cold, hashed and minched, from one week to the other. 1821 [see 7]. 1880 Jamieson, To Minch, Minsh, to cut into small pieces. |
b. To chop up or grind small with a knife or mincing-machine and cook (meat, usually the remains of a joint, etc., left from a previous meal).
| Mod. We will have the cold meat minced for dinner to-day. |
c. transf. To cut (a person) in small pieces.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 537 She saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing with his Sword her Husbands limbes. 1607 ― Timon iv. iii. 122 Spare not the Babe..Thinke it a Bastard..And mince it sans remorse. 1648 Gage West Ind. 200 Fearing that many would fall upon him cowardly and mince him small in pieces. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 120 Revive the Wits! But murder first, and mince them all to bits. 1819 Shelley Cyclops 359 He..minces their flesh and gnaws their bone With his cursed teeth. 1896 Farmer & Henley Slang, Mince (medical students'), to dissect. |
| β 1635 Heywood Hierarchie ii. 64 Thinking to minch me into parts and fleece Me of my right. |
† d. To cut or slash.
Obs. rare.
| a 1560 Becon Jewel of Joy Wks. ii. 19 b, Theyr dublets and hoses,..for the most parte are so mynsed cutte and iagged, that [etc.]. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 63 Lyk on a mountayn thee tree dry wythered oaken Sliest by the clowne Coridon rusticks with twibbil, or hatchet. Then the tre deepe minced, far chopt dooth terrifye swinckers. |
† e. The alleged proper term for: To carve (a plover).
Obs.| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vij b, A Plouer Mynsed. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 151 Wynge that quayle mynce that plouer thye that pegyon. 1661 Rabisha Cookery Dissected 253 Mince that Plover. 1840 H. Ainsworth Tower of London xxxix, In the old terms of his art, he leached the brawn,..minced the plovers, thighed the pigeons. |
2. transf. and
fig. To cut up, subdivide minutely. Also with
up.
† to mince away: to nullify by multiplied petty exceptions.
| α c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 6758 All northumberlande prouynce He thoght as croms of brede to mynce. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 190 To mince his labour so, as ech one can haue but some litle. 1639 Fuller Holy War v. xxi. (1640) 264 We will not take notice of Germanie as it is minced into pettie Principalities. 1689 T. R. View Govt. Europe 62 The Jesuits there have..minc'd away all the old remains of Morality and Conscience. a 1748 Watts Improv. Mind ii. vi. §2 (1801) 241, I have always thought it a mistake in the preacher to mince his text or his subject too small, by a great number of subdivisions. 1853 Marsden Early Purit. 244 Their [sc. the Puritans'] sermons were not studiously minced up in tiny fragments. |
| refl. 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §8 Nor contented with a general breach or dichotomy with their Church do subdivide and mince themselves almost into Atoms. |
| β 1637 Rutherford Lett. 11 Mar., And let Christ have all your love, without minching or dividing it. 1712 M. Henry Life P. Henry Wks. 1853 II. 647/1 In his expositions, he reduced the matter of the chapter..read to some heads; not by a logical analysis, which often mincheth it too small. |
† 3. To diminish, take away from.
Obs.| α 1646 J. Benbrigge Vsura Accom. 20 He that minceth his estate, doth diminish the Magistrate's Right [= Taxes]. |
| β 1499 in N. Riding Rec. (1894) 178 Wherby the seid wode in mynshed and hurt. 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 35 Lawlesse publicans, lyke Hophnees with elcrookes to minche and not Samueles, to mense the offerings of God. |
4. a. To lessen or diminish in representation; to make little of, minimize; to disparage; to palliate, extenuate (faults). Now
rare.
| a 1591 H. Smith Serm. (1637) 395 Wee mince our sins as though they needed no forgivenesse. 1609 W. M. Man in Moone (Percy Soc.) 46 To mince and extenuate any laudable part in her, but to display and augment whatsoever deformity you know by her. 1638 Ford Lady's Trial i. iii, Be gone Futelli, doe not mince one syllable Of what you heare. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. 186 The Author of the Dissertation..seems to mince the Universality of the Flood. 1685 Dryden Sylvæ Pref. a 3 b, If to mince his meaning,..I had..omitted some part of what he [sc. Lucretius] said,..I certainly had wrong'd him. 1727 Swift Gulliver, Let. fr. Capt. G. to Sympson 14 You have either omitted some material circumstances, or minced or changed them in such a manner that I do hardly know mine own work. 1736 Ainsworth Lat. Dict., To mince or pass a thing slightly over. 1839 Bailey Festus v. (1848) 41 Ye see I do not mince the truth for ye. |
† b. absol. Obs.| 1615 Jackson Creed iv. ii. vi. §5 Abraham..was then rejustified not by works though not without faith, as Bellarmine minceth, but by faith without works, as the Apostle strongly and peremptorily infers. 1621 1st Bk. Discipl. Ch. Scot. Pref. (1641) A 3, Some of the Disciples..at first did mince, and sparingly speake, but afterward practise and loudly preach; that [etc.]. 1681 Glanvill Sadducismus ii. (1726) 455 Who confidently and without mincing, denied that there was any such Being. |
c. to mince the matter: in early use, to extenuate or make light of the particular matter in question. Now only in negative contexts, to moderate one's language in condemnation, to express oneself politely or delicately. So
to mince matters.
| a 1535 [see mincing vbl. n. 2]. 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 247 Iago, Thy honestie and love doth mince this matter, Making it light to Cassio. 1649 Bp. Hall Cases Consc. (1650) 160 Some Doctors..would either excuse, or mince the matter. 1668 Owen Nat. & Power Indw. Sin Wks. 1851 VI. 315 Here it [sc. the law] minceth not the matter with Sinners. 1679 J. Goodman Penit. Pard. iii. v. (1713) 335 A learned Jew endeavours to mince the matter, and to turn the story into an allegory. 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 82 Well, Tom, said he, don't mince the matter. Tell me, before Mrs. Andrews, what they said. 1778 F. Burney Diary 26 Aug., His determination not to mince the matter, when he thought reproof at all deserved. 1840 Carlyle Heroes ii. (1858) 239 A candid ferocity, if the case call for it, is in him; he does not mince matters! 1857 W. Collins Dead Secret ii. ii. (1861) 49 A man's speculative view depends—not to mince the matter—on the state of his secretions. 1891 Mrs. Oliphant Jerus. iv. iii. 483 Language of condemnation..made when men did not mince matters. |
d. † To report (expressions) euphemistically (
obs.); to moderate (one's language), restrain (one's words) within the bounds of politeness or decorum. Also
to mince it.
to mince an oath: to substitute some euphemistic perversion for it (also used in sense 5).
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 130, I know no wayes to mince it in loue, but directly to say, I loue you. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. i. ii. 109 Ant. Speake to me home, Mince not the general tongue, name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome. 1720 Swift Let. Advice Yng. Poet Misc. (1722) 107 My young Master, who at first but minc'd an Oath, is taught there to mouth it gracefully, and to swear, as he reads French, Ore rotundo. 1754 Richardson Grandison III. vii. 112 Shall I give it you in plain English? You don't use to mince it. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. ii, I will not mince my words. 1897 S. S. Sprigge Life T. Wakley xxxii. 294 These were hard sayings, but men did not mince their words in those days. |
5. a. trans. To utter in an affectedly refined manner; to pronounce with affected elegance, ‘clip’ (one's words). Also with
out.
b. absol. or intr. To speak with affected elegance or delicacy of pronunciation.
| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Thess. 3 We came not unto you with bragging,..nor curiously mincing a sorte of great wordes. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. Wks. 1834 II. 179 Low spake the lass, and lisp'd and minced the while. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Channings II. v. 75 ‘You—are—very—kind—to—take—up—Arthur Channing's cause!’ they mince out. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. x. 347 [The] fine gentleman who minced his mother tongue. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere III. xliii. 255 ‘Ah—{oqq}Reculer pour mieux faire sauter!{cqq}’—said Sir John, mincing out his pun as though he loved it. |
6. a. intr. To walk with short steps or with affected preciseness or nicety; to walk in an affected manner; to show affectation or affected delicacy in manner of gait. Also
to mince it.
| 1562 Jack Juggler (Roxb. Club) 9 She minceth, she brideleth, she swimmeth to and fro. 1567 Drant Horace, Ep. i. xiv. E v, Thou hast no trippinge trull to mince it with the now That thou mighst foote it vnto her as nimble as a cow. 1593 Drayton Ecl. vii. 13 Now Shepheards..in neate Jackets minsen on the Playnes. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. v. i. 9 Fall. Away I say, time weares, hold vp your head & mince. 1611 Bible Isa. iii. 16 The daughters of Zion are hautie, and walke with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing [marg., tripping nicely] as they goe, and making a tinkeling with their feet. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle etc. (1871) 133 Then gan she trip it proudlie one the toe, And mince it finely vpon London streetes. a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes i. xix. (1640) 240 Mincing with ones feete, or any other affected kind of going, is an act of haughtinesse. 1736 Ainsworth Lat. Dict., To mince it in walking. 1753 Foote Eng. in Paris i. Wks. 1799 I. 36 The men are all puppies, mincing and dancing, and chattering. 1826 Blackw. Mag. XX. 484 She..minced, and primmed, and tossed her head. 1868 L. M. Alcott Lit. Women xix, It was a comical sight to see her mince along. 1892 Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker ii. 28 My aunt might mince and my cousins bridle, but there was no getting over the solid physical fact of the stone-mason in the chimney-corner. |
b. trans. To perform or enact mincingly.
| 1603 Dekker Batchelar's Banq. xi, Fine Dames and dainetye Girles..whoe can finely mince their measures. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 122 Behold yond simpring Dame,..that minces Vertue & do's shake the head to heare of pleasures name. 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche iii. clxxxii, To the ground Three times she bows, and with a modest grace Minces here spruce retreat. 1821 in A. Lowson J. Guidfollow (1890) 233 [The witch] Could mince a minua on mist, Or caper on a cloud! |
7. Comb. The verb-stem used
attrib. a. with object-noun, as in
† mince-speech, one who ‘minces’ his language;
b. in the sense of ‘minced’, as in
† mince-collop,
mincemeat,
mince-pie.
| α 1621 R. Brathwait Nat. Embassie, etc. (1877) 278 Mins-speech, nuff-pace sleeke-skin, and perfum'd breath. |
| β 1821 Galt Ayrsh. Leg. xxv. (1895) 223 A steam-ingine that minches minch-collops as natural as life. |