• IPA: /mɪns/

mince

1. (uncountable) Finely chopped meat.

   Mince tastes really good fried in a pan with some chopped onion and tomato.

2. (uncountable) Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.

   During Christmas time my dad loves to eat mince pies.

3. (countable) An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
   • 2010, Tom Zoellner, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World:

     His skin was china pale, he walked with a slight mince, and his silver mustache was always trimmed sharp; it was his custom to send a bouquet of pink carnations to the wives of men with whom he dined.

4. (countable) An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
   • 1928, R. M. Pope, in The Education Outlook, volume 80, page 285:

     And, further, who has not heard what someone has christened the "Oxford" mince, where every consonant is mispronounced and every vowel gets a wrong value?

   • 2008, Opie Read, The Colossus, page 95:

     [...] a smiling man, portly and impressive, coming toward them with a dignified mince in his walk.

5. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, mostly, in the plural) An eye (from mince pie).

• French: hachis
• German: Hackfleisch, Faschiertes, Gehacktes, Hackepeter, Mincemeat
• Italian: macinato
• Portuguese: carne moída
• Russian: фарш
• Spanish: picadillo

mince (minces, present participle mincing; past and past participle minced)

1. (transitive) To make less; make small.
2. (transitive) To lessen; diminish; to diminish in speaking; speak of lightly or slightingly; minimise.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:diminish

3. (transitive, rare) To effect mincingly.
4. (transitive, cooking) To cut into very small pieces; to chop fine.

   Butchers often use machines to mince meat.

5. (archaic, transitive, figuratively) To suppress or weaken the force of

   Synonyms: extenuate, palliate, weaken

   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery

     Siren, now mince the sin, / And mollify damnation with a phrase.

6. To say or utter vaguely, not directly or frankly
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:

     I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say — "I love you."

   to mince one's words

   a minced oath

7. (transitive) To affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.
   • 1869, Alexander J. Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, with special reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer, part 1, page 194:

     In some districts of England ll is sounded like w, thus bowd (booud) for BOLD, bw (buu) for BULL, caw (kau) for CALL. But this pronunciation is merely a provincialism, and not to be imitated unless you wish to mince like these blunderers.

   • 1905, George Henderson, The Gaelic Dialects, IV, in the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, published by Kuno Meyer and L. Chr. Stern, volume 5, page 98:

     One may hear some speakers in Oxford mince brother into brover (brëvë); Bath into Baf; both into bof.

8. (intransitive) To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner.
   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473 ↗:

     At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.

   • 1769, King James Bible, Isaiah 3:16

     The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they go.

   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iv], page 177 ↗, column 1:

     I'll […] turn two mincing steps into a manly stride.

9. (intransitive) To act or talk with affected nicety; to affect delicacy in manner.

   I love going to gay bars and seeing drag queens mince around on stage.

• French: hacher
• German: hacken, wolfen
• Italian: tritare, macinare
• Portuguese: picar
• Russian: кроши́ть

• Italian: moderare
• Russian: преуменьша́ть

• Russian: семенить