Mincing

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act by which something is minced. countable, uncountable

    "After three or four mincings with a coarse blade the product was passed two or three times through a fine blade."

  2. 2
    Affected dainty speech or movement. countable, uncountable

    "My father, León Fuertes, was a fag three years; a roaring faggot; a lisping, smirking fruit; […] He put on all the trappings of inversion: the twittered mouthings, the hyper-feminine moues, the languid mincings."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of mince form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Affectedly dainty.

    ""Is there nothing to eat in the house?" he asked, insolently, as if to a servant. In certain stages of his intoxication he affected the clipped, mincing speech of the towns. Mrs. Morel hated him most in this condition."

Adjective
  1. 1
    affectedly dainty or refined wordnet

Example

More examples

"Mary cut herself while she was mincing onions."

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