mince.
Finely chopped meat; minced meat.
Meaning & usage
Finely chopped meat; minced meat.
Mince tastes really good fried in a pan with some chopped onion and tomato.
Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.
During Christmas time my dad loves to eat mince pies.
An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
An eye (from mince pie).
Something worthless; rubbish.
That band's new album is total mince.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian, ġeminsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *minnisōn, from Proto-Germanic *minnisōną (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut into small pieces”), from mince (“slender, slight, puny”), from Frankish *minsto, *minnisto, superlative of *min, *minn (“small, less”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”); both from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Old Saxon minsōn (“to make less, make smaller”), Old Dutch minson (“to make smaller”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌶𐌽𐌰𐌽 (minznan, “to become less, diminish”), Swedish minska (“to reduce, lessen”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mins, “slender, slight”). More at min.
To make less; to make small.
To lessen; to diminish; to diminish in speaking; to speak of lightly or slightingly; to minimise.
To effect mincingly.
To cut into very small pieces; to chop finely.
Butchers often use machines to mince meat.
To suppress or weaken the force of.
To say or utter vaguely (not directly or frankly).
to mince one's words
a minced oath
To affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.
To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner.
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.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian, ġeminsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *minnisōn, from Proto-Germanic *minnisōną (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut into small pieces”), from mince (“slender, slight, puny”), from Frankish *minsto, *minnisto, superlative of *min, *minn (“small, less”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”); both from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Old Saxon minsōn (“to make less, make smaller”), Old Dutch minson (“to make smaller”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌶𐌽𐌰𐌽 (minznan, “to become less, diminish”), Swedish minska (“to reduce, lessen”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mins, “slender, slight”). More at min.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.