Rennet
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An enzyme used as the first step in making cheese, to curdle the milk and coagulate the casein in it, derived by soaking the fourth stomach of a milk-fed calf in brine. countable, uncountable
- 2 Alternative form of reinette. alt-of, alternative
"The choice of treats is between a sweet mandarin orange and maybe a lumpy rennet apple. Nothing is packaged; there is only food here in this market, most of it requiring washing and chopping and cooking."
- 3 a substance that curdles milk in making cheese and junket wordnet
Example
More examples"When rennet is added, heated milk curdles, and the curds separate from the liquid whey."
Etymology
From Middle English rennet, from Old English *rynnet, *ġerynnet, from Proto-West Germanic *garunniþu (“coagulation, curdling, rennet”), cognate with Old Saxon girunnida (“a running together, coagulation”), Old High German girunnida (“rennet, coagulation”), Middle High German gerinnede (“that which is curdled”). Compare also Middle English renelesse, renels, renlys, rendlys (“rennet”), Middle Dutch rinsel, runsel (“rennet”), German Rennsel; further to Middle English irennen (“to curdle; to run”), Old English ġerennan (“to coagulate”), Old High German girunst (“rennet”), German gerinnen (“to coagulate; congeal”).
Anglicized form of reinette.
Related phrases
More for "rennet"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.