noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any substance added to meat, especially papain, before cooking in order to make it more tender.
2. 2
   a substance (as the plant enzyme papain) applied to meat to make it tender wordnet
3. 3
   Any tool used to tenderize meat before cooking.; A form of mallet used to beat meat before cooking.
4. 4
   Any tool used to tenderize meat before cooking.; A tool similar to a potato masher used for tenderizing
5. 5
   Any tool used to tenderize meat before cooking.; A tool with nails or blades, that can be pressed on (not unlike a stapler) to puncture the meat.

Synonyms

All synonyms

tenderiser

Example

More examples

"Mary smashed Tom's favorite coffee mug with a meat tenderizer."

Etymology

From tenderize + -er.

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