Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Cheese?

\Cheese\, n. [OE. chese, AS. c[=e]se, fr. L. caseus, LL. casius. Cf. {Casein}.] 1. The curd of milk, coagulated usually with rennet, separated from the whey, and pressed into a solid mass in a hoop or mold. 2. A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the form of a cheese. 3. The flat, circular, mucilaginous fruit of the dwarf mallow ({Malva rotundifolia}). [Colloq.] 4. A low courtesy; -- so called on account of the cheese form assumed by a woman's dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration. --De Quincey. --Thackeray. {Cheese cake}, a cake made of or filled with, a composition of soft curds, sugar, and butter. --Prior. {Cheese fly} (Zo["o]l.), a black dipterous insect ({Piophila casei}) of which the larv[ae] or maggots, called skippers or hoppers, live in cheese. {Cheese mite} (Zo["o]l.), a minute mite ({Tryoglyhus siro}) in cheese and other articles of food. {Cheese press}, a press used in making cheese, to separate the whey from the curd, and to press the curd into a mold. {Cheese rennet} (Bot.), a plant of the Madder family ({Golium verum}, or {yellow bedstraw}), sometimes used to coagulate milk. The roots are used as a substitute for madder. {Cheese vat}, a vat or tub in which the curd is formed and cut or broken, in cheese making.
\ A kind of soft, unpressed cream cheese made in the vicinity of Camembert, near Argentan, France; also, any cheese of the same type, wherever made.