Kishke

//ˈkɪʃkə// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A dish made from stuffed intestine.

    "Now what is cholent without "kishke"? Our mothers made kishke from the small intestine of a cow. They filled it with stuffing, spices and Shmaltz (chicken fats)."

  2. 2
    (Judaism) roasted fowl intestines with a seasoned filling of matzo meal and suet wordnet
  3. 3
    Intestines, guts. also, figuratively, in-plural, informal, often

    "Oy a broch! I was so worried! I knew something was wrong. In my kishkes, I could feel it!"

Example

More examples

"Now what is cholent without "kishke"? Our mothers made kishke from the small intestine of a cow. They filled it with stuffing, spices and Shmaltz (chicken fats)."

Etymology

Attested in English since the late 1930s, from Yiddish קישקע (kishke), from Slavic—Polish kiszka, Russian кишка́ (kišká), or Ukrainian ки́шка (kýška). Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *kyšьka (“intestine, stomach”). May be related to Sanskrit कोष्ठ (koṣṭha, “intestine”) or Ancient Greek κύστις (kústis, “bladder”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.