dough-nut

Noun

doughnut (plural doughnuts)

1. A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape filled with jelly/jam, custard, or cream.
   • The soldiers, drawn up in hollow square—how apt is this word hollow, when applied to men who have fasted, in view of promised doughnuts!—received the procession, which consisted of music, then the ladies, then the doughnuts.1865, Frank B. Goodrich, The Tribute Book, Derby & Miller, page 45
2. (attributive, figuratively) A circular life raft.
   • He put on the life jacket and began paddling around. A doughnut life raft popped up out of the ocean in front of him.1996, John Long, Close Shaves: Classic Stories on the Edge, page 2

   Synonyms:

   ring, torus, toroid

3. (figuratively) A toroidal vacuum chamber.
   • In about 1951, the same company sealed into their vacuum doughnuts the regenerative peelers so that X-ray beams or electron beams could be obtained with the sealed off commercial tubes used in […]2012, Edward Creutz, Nuclear Instrumentation I, page 213

   Synonyms:

   ring, torus, toroid

4. (Australia, Canada, US, figuratively) A peel-out or skid mark in the shape of a circle; a 360-degree skid.

   Synonyms:

   ring, torus, toroid

5. (figuratively) A spare car tyre, usually stored in the boot, that is smaller than a full-sized tyre and is only intended for temporary use.

   Synonyms:

   ring, torus, toroid

6. (figuratively) A kind of tyre for an airplane.
   • The advantage of the doughnuts was that they spread the weight of the aeroplane over a much larger area of ground, causing less damage to grass, and making them less prone to bogging down in wet conditions.1975, Flight International (volume 107, part 2)

   Synonyms:

   ring, torus, toroid

See all 14 meanings of doughnut