congee
/ˈkɒndʒi/US/ˈkɑnd͡ʒi/
congee noun: leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly).
Noun (1)
congee (countable and uncountable, plural congees)
- Leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly)
- Formal permission to leave; a passport.
- Formal dismissal; (figurative) any dismissal; (originally & particularly humorously ironic) abrupt dismissal without ceremony.
- So courteous conge both did giue and take,
With right hands plighted, pledges of good will.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- So courteous conge both did giue and take,
- Formal leavetaking; (figurative) any farewell.
- A fee paid to make another go away, (particularly) alms to a persistent beggar.
- A bow, curtsey, or other gesture (originally) made at departure but (later) including at greeting or in obeissance or respect.
- As salutations, reverences, or conges, by which some doe often purchase the honour, (but wrongfully) to be humble, lowly, and courteous[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- … I therefore, at this time, shall only add this advice to you, under and by the leave of my lord;’ (and with that he made Diabolus a very low congee;) …1682, John Bunyan, The Holy War
Verb
congee (third-person singular simple present congees, present participle congeeing, simple past and past participle congeed)
- To give formal permission to leave; to dismiss.
- To give formal permission to do something; to license.
- To take congee: to leave ceremoniously.
- To make a congee: to bow, curtsey, etc., (particularly dialectal) while leaving; (figuratively) to make obeissance, show respect, or defer to someone or something.
Noun (2)
congee (usually uncountable, plural congees)
- A type of thick rice porridge or soup, sometimes prepared with vegetables and/or meat.
- In a past life in Fuzhou, it represented some reality other than the one of daily congee and pickled turnips, cabbage and boiled rip soup.2022, Ling Ma, “Peking Duck”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- rice porridge, rice congee, porridge, zhou, jook, juk
congee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu
congee in Hindi
- a type of rice porridge
- गांजी gāñjī, खीर khīr
congee in Tamil
- a type of rice porridge
- கஞ்சி kañci
congee in Bengali
- a type of rice porridge
- জাউ jau
congee in Telugu
- a type of rice porridge
- గంజి gañji
More languagesFewer languages
- congee in Malayalam
- കഞ്ഞി kaññi
- congee in Kannada
- ಗಂಜಿ gañji
- congee in Tagalog
- lugaw
- congee in Malay
- bubur
- congee in Indonesian
- bubur
- congee in Thai
- โจ๊ก jóok, ข้าวต้ม kâao-dtôm, จุ๊ก júk
- congee in Vietnamese
- cháo
- congee in Myanmar
- ဆန်ပြုတ် hcanprut
Synonyms of congee
Forms of congee
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | congees |
| alternative form | conge |
| alternative form | congé |
| alternative form | conjee |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | congees |
| present participle | congeeing |
| past participle | congeed |
| past | congeed |
Origin of congee
From late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“to go and come”), from con- + meō (“to go, to pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé.
From Tamil கஞ்சி (kañci) or another Dravidian language such as Malayalam കഞ്ഞി (kaññi) (ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *kañci), possibly via Portuguese canje.
Words formed from congee
- Congee Festival
- congee house
- Laba congee
- rice congee
- give congee
- take congee
Phrases with congee
Words that rhyme with congee
Questions about congee
- What does congee mean?
- Congee means leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly).
- What is congee in Hindi?
- Congee in Hindi is गांजी (gāñjī), खीर (khīr). See Congee meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is congee?
- Congee can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce congee?
- Congee is pronounced /ˈkɑnd͡ʒi/ (US).
- What is the plural of congee?
- The plural of congee is congees.
Words near congee in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: congee (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-congee.wav.
Cite this entry: “congee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/congee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.