/ tʃiːz; NAmE / noun
1.
[ U , C ] a type of food made from milk that can be either soft or hard and is usually white or yellow in colour; a particular type of this food :
Cheddar cheese
goat's cheese (= made from the milk of a goat )
a cheese sandwich / salad
a chunk / piece / slice of cheese
a selection of French cheeses
a cheese knife (= a knife with a special curved blade with two points on the end, used for cutting and picking up pieces of cheese)
—picture at cutlery
—see also American cheese , blue cheese , cauliflower cheese , cottage cheese , cream cheese , macaroni cheese
2.
cheese! what you ask sb to say before you take their photograph
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IDIOMS
see big adjective , chalk noun , hard adjective
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WORD ORIGIN
Old English cēse , cӯse , of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch kaas and German Käse ; from Latin caseus .