English edit

 
flour

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Spelled (until about 1830) and meaning flower in the sense of flour being the "finest portion of ground grain" (compare French fleur de farine, fine fleur). Doublet of flower. Partially displaced native meal.

The U.S. standard of identity comes from 21CFR137.105.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

 
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flour (usually uncountable, plural flours)

  1. Powder obtained by grinding or milling cereal grains, especially wheat, or other foodstuffs such as soybeans and potatoes, and used to bake bread, cakes, and pastry.
    Coordinate term: meal
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      Everything a living animal could do to destroy and to desecrate bed and walls had been done. []   A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.
  2. (US standards of identity) The food made by grinding and bolting cleaned wheat (not durum or red durum) until it meets specified levels of fineness, dryness, and freedom from bran and germ, also containing any of certain enzymes, ascorbic acid, and certain bleaching agents.
    Synonyms: smeddum, plain flour, wheat flour, white flour
  3. Powder of other material.
    wood flour, produced by sanding wood
    mustard flour
  4. Obsolete form of flower.

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

  • Drehu: falawa
  • Maori: parāoa
  • Palauan: blauang
  • West Uvean: falawa

Translations edit

See also edit

Verb edit

flour (third-person singular simple present flours, present participle flouring, simple past and past participle floured)

  1. (transitive) To apply flour to something; to cover with flour.
  2. (transitive) To reduce to flour.
  3. (intransitive) To break up into fine globules of mercury in the amalgamation process.

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ Deterding, David (2007) Singapore English[1], Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 27

Anagrams edit

Cornish edit

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

flour

  1. flower, choice (best of a collective)

Noun edit

flour m (plural flourys)

  1. (botany) flower
  2. flower (the best of a collective)

Synonyms edit

Middle English edit

Etymology 1 edit

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin flōrem, accusative of flōs. More at flower.

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

flour (plural floures)

  1. A flower (often representing impermanence or beauty)
  2. A depiction or likeness of a flower.
  3. Success or achievement in a contest; victoriousness.
  4. A virtue or benefit; something desirable.
  5. That which is unparalleled; the top or most superior.
  6. Flour (i.e. the best part of a grain)
  7. A powder; especially one which is white like flour.
  8. An exemplar or example of a trait or behaviour.
  9. A woman's menstruation/period.
  10. (rare) Virginhood; sexual abstinence.
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
References edit

Etymology 2 edit

From Old English flōr.

Noun edit

flour

  1. Alternative form of flor

Occitan edit

Noun edit

flour f (plural flours)

  1. (Mistralian) Alternative spelling of flor (flower)

Old French edit

Noun edit

flour oblique singularf (oblique plural flours, nominative singular flour, nominative plural flours)

  1. Alternative form of flor
    • 1377, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 136 of this essay:
      non pasque les flours touchent a la chair nue car ce seroit doubte que les porres ne se clousissent et de fievre putride.
      but not that the flowers should touch the naked flesh because this may cause the pores to shut with a putrid fever.

Romansch edit

Noun edit

flour f (plural flours)

  1. (Surmiran) Alternative form of flur (flower)

Scots edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English flour, from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin flōrem, accusative of flōs. More at English flower.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

flour (plural flours)

  1. a flower
  2. a bouquet (bunch of flowers)
  3. (uncountable) Wheat flour

Verb edit

flour (third-person singular simple present flours, present participle flourin, simple past flourt, past participle flourt)

  1. to embroider