aspic
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈæspɪk/
Noun

aspic (plural aspics)

  1. A dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatine, jelly-like substance made from a meat stock or consommé.
    • 1943, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, Bobbs Merrill, page 441:
      "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Wynand," whispered Keating. His eyes fixed upon the tomato aspic on his salad plate; it was soft and shivering; it made him sick.
  2. (obsolete, poetic) An asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra:
      This is an aspic's trail: and these fig-leaves / Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves.
    • 1833, Lord Alfred Tennyson, "A Dream of Fair Women":
      (With that she tore her robe apart, and half / The polished argent of her breast to sight / Laid bare. Thereto she pointed with a laugh, / Showing the aspic's bite. )
  3. A piece of ordnance carrying a 12-pound shot.
Translations Adjective

aspic (not comparable)

  1. Aspish; relating to an asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.
    • 1923, Wallace Stevens, "In the Carolinas," Harmonium, Faber and Faber (2001), ISBN 978-0571207794, page 3,
      Timeless mother, / How is it that your aspic nipples / For once vent honey?



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