mince

«mince» in Mova's school dictionary: meat cut into very small pieces in a machine, used for… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (mince — uncountable) — UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ; verb (mince, minces, minced, mincing)

meaning for a pupil

1) Mince is meat cut into very small pieces in a machine, used for burgers, spaghetti bolognese and cottage pie; in the US and Canada it is called «ground beef» or «hamburger meat». tree →

2) To mince food is to cut it into very small pieces. tree →

3) To mince is to walk with small, quick, fussy steps. tree →

4) «Not mince your words» means to say something directly, even if it is not polite. tree →

sense in the lessons

In cooking at home and school, mince is a cheap everyday meat; «mince and tatties» is a Scottish dish, and «mince pies» are a Christmas treat (now filled with fruit, not meat). In everyday talk, «she didn't mince her words» means she was very blunt. In Scotland, «talking mince» means talking nonsense (slang).

examples

• Mum bought beef mince for burgers. tree →
• Fry the mince with onions. tree →
• Mince the garlic very finely. tree →
• We eat mince pies at Christmas. tree →
• She didn't mince her words: «That's wrong.» tree →
• (Scotland) Stop talking mince! tree →
• In the US, mince is called ground beef. tree →
• The mince is browning in the pan. tree →

note

Uncountable noun: «some mince», «500 grams of mince». Trap: «mince pies» in the UK are sweet fruit pies, not meat. «Mincemeat» is the sweet fruit filling; «make mincemeat of someone» = beat them easily.

In the corpora

• A sausage at a barbecue is mostly minced pork, and pork is meat from a pig.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «mince» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.