1. n.1 a a food made from the pressed curds of milk. b a complete cake of this with rind.
2 a conserve having the consistency of soft cheese (lemon cheese).
3 a round flat object, e.g. the heavy flat wooden disc used in skittles.
Phrases and idioms:
cheese-cutter
1. a knife with a broad curved blade.
2 a device for cutting cheese by pulling a wire through it. cheese-fly (pl. -flies) a small black fly, Piophila casei, breeding in cheese. cheese-head the squat cylindrical head of a screw etc. cheese-mite any mite of the genus Tyroglyphus feeding on cheese. cheese-paring adj. stingy.
--n. stinginess. cheese plant Swiss cheese plant. cheese-skipper cheese-fly. cheese straw a thin cheese-flavoured strip of pastry. hard cheese sl. bad luck.
Etymology: OE cese etc. ult. f. L caseus 2. v.tr. Brit. sl. (as cheesed adj.) (often foll. by off) bored, fed up.
Phrases and idioms:
cheese it stop it, leave off.
Etymology: 19th c.: orig. unkn. 3. n. (also big cheese) sl. an important person.
Etymology: perh. f. Hind. chiz thing