Word.ws English Dictionary

bisque

/bɪsk/

bisque noun: a thick creamy soup made from fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables.

bisque: a thick creamy soup made from fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables
Image: Wheeler Cowperthwaite, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

bisque (countable and uncountable, plural bisques)

  1. A thick creamy soup made from fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables.
    • lobster bisque
  2. A pale pinkish brown colour.
  3. A form of unglazed earthenware; biscuit.

Adjective

bisque (not comparable)

  1. Of a pale pinkish brown colour.

Verb

bisque (third-person singular simple present bisques, present participle bisquing, simple past and past participle bisqued)

  1. (transitive) To prepare ceramics in the bisque style.
    • I use an electric kiln strictly for bisquing my pots.2018, Melissa Weiss, Handbuilt, A Potter's Guide, page 147

Noun (2)

bisque (plural bisques)

  1. An extra turn, free point or some other advantage allowed.
    • Going round with Angus McTavish carrying your bag, she mused, was equivalent to about four bisques to the opposition. Angus McTavish was the sort of man who, just by going about looking like a frozen asset, takes all the edge and zip out of a girl's game.1937 March 19, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, Lord Emsworth and Others, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 851336728; republished Woodstock, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, 2002, ISBN 978-1-58567-277-6, pages...
    1. A free turn in a handicap croquet match.
    2. A free point in a handicap real tennis match.
  2. (British, historical, chiefly BBC) A day's leave an employee may take without warning or reason and not be counted as annual leave.
  3. (British, British parliament) Permission for an MP to be absent from a vote, granted by the whips when the absence is not likely to affect the outcome.

bisque meaning in Tamil and Malay

bisque in Tamil

வெந்தக் களிமண், மீன் சுடுசாறு, இளஞ்சிவப்பான பழுப்பு

bisque in Malay

thick creamy soup
biska

Forms of bisque

Noun
pluralbisques
alternative form (archaic)bisk
Verb
third-person singular presentbisques
present participlebisquing
past participlebisqued
pastbisqued

Origin of bisque

Borrowed from French bisque, possibly from Biscaye.

Borrowed from French bisque, of unknown origin; Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, suggests a comparison with Spanish bisca (“gambling house, gambling den”).

Words formed from bisque

Phrases with bisque

Words that rhyme with bisque

Questions about bisque

What does bisque mean?
Bisque means a thick creamy soup made from fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables.
What is bisque in Tamil?
Bisque in Tamil is வெந்தக் களிமண், மீன் சுடுசாறு, இளஞ்சிவப்பான பழுப்பு. See Bisque meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bisque?
Bisque can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce bisque?
Bisque is pronounced /bɪsk/ (UK).
What is the plural of bisque?
The plural of bisque is bisques.

Words near bisque in the dictionary

  1. bisporphyrins
  2. bispropargylic
  3. bispyribac
  4. bisquare
  5. bisquaternary
  6. bisque
  7. bisque doll
  8. bisque dolls
  9. bisqued
  10. bisquer
  11. bisquers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bisque (page history and authors); bisque (Tamil 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.

Last updated:

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

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