Word.ws English Dictionary

aspic

/ˈæspɪk/

aspic noun: a meat or fish jelly.

aspic: a meat or fish jelly
Image: Gmelfi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

aspic (countable and uncountable, plural aspics)

  1. A meat or fish jelly.
    • “Put a little aspic in the mould, so as to cover the bottom ···“1819, Frederick Nutt, Nutt, F. (1819). The Imperial and Royal Cook. Consisting of the Most Sumptuous Made Dishes ... Including the Latest Improvements in Fashionable Life. 2nd Ed. United Kingdom...
  2. A dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatine, jelly-like substance made from a meat stock or consommé.
    • "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Wynand," whispered Keating. His eyes fixed upon the tomato aspic on his salad plate; it was soft and shivering; it made him sick.1943, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 441
  3. (obsolete, poetic) An asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.
    • This is an aspic's trail: and these fig-leaves / Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • (With that she tore her robe apart, and half / The polished argent of her breast to sight / Laid bare. Thereto she pointed with a laugh, / Showing the aspic's bite. )1833, Lord Alfred Tennyson, A Dream of Fair Women
  4. (obsolete) A light cannon firing a two-pound ball.

Adjective

aspic (not comparable)

  1. Aspish; relating to an asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.
    • Timeless mother, / How is it that your aspic nipples / For once vent honey?1923, Wallace Stevens, “In the Carolinas”, in Harmonium, Faber and Faber, published 2001, →ISBN, page 3

aspic meaning in Bengali

aspic in Bengali

মাংস, মাছের সুস্বাদু জেলি

Forms of aspic

pluralaspics

Origin of aspic

Borrowed from French aspic, from Latin aspis, and possibly influenced by French basilic (“basilisk”). The culinary sense may come from association with the snake due to the traditional colors and cold temperature of aspic, in addition to the fact that the gelatin was often molded in a shape similar to a coiled snake.

Words formed from aspic

Questions about aspic

What does aspic mean?
Aspic means a meat or fish jelly.
What is aspic in Bengali?
Aspic in Bengali is মাংস, মাছের সুস্বাদু জেলি. See Aspic meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is aspic?
Aspic can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce aspic?
Aspic is pronounced /ˈæspɪk/.
What is the plural of aspic?
The plural of aspic is aspics.

Words near aspic in the dictionary

  1. asphyxiophiliac
  2. asphyxiophiliacs
  3. asphyxy
  4. asphyxying
  5. ASPI
  6. aspic
  7. aspicilioid
  8. aspicillin
  9. aspick
  10. aspicks
  11. aspics

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aspic (page history and authors); aspic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-aspic.wav.

Cite this entry: “aspic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aspic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.