macaroni

Noun (1)

macaroni (countable and uncountable, plural macaronis or macaronies)

1. (uncountable) A type of pasta in the form of short tubes, typically boiled and served in soup, with a sauce, or in melted cheese; a dish of this.
   • Take half a pound of small pipe-macaroni.1778, Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery..., new ed., p. 124
   • "I can recommend this macaroni, for it is my favourite dish: I am very national. You will not take any? Ah, young ladies are, or ought to be, light eaters. Your ladyship will, I trust, set your fair companion an example."1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 32

   Synonyms:

   mac, maccheroni

2. (broadly, informal, obsolete, uncountable) Pasta, particularly thicker noodles, spaghetti.
   • Paste made into strings like pack-thread or thongs of whit-leather (which if greater they call Macaroni, if lesser Vermicelli) they cut in pieces and put in their pots as we do oat-meal to make their menestra or broth of.1673, John Ray, Observations..., page 405
   • MACARONI... is a preparation of wheat originally peculiar to Italy, in which country it is an article of food of national importance. The same substance in different forms is also known as vermicelli, pasta or Italian pastes, taglioni, fanti, &c.1883, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. XV, s.v.

   Synonyms:

   noodle, pasta, paste

3. (obsolete, uncountable) Synonym of gnocchi (“Italian dumpling made of potato or semolina”).
   • Maccaróni, a kind of meat made of round peeces of paste, boyled in water and put into a dish with butter, spice and grated-cheese vpon them.1611, John Florio, Queen Anna's New World of Words, s.v
   • He doth learne to make ſtrange ſauces, to eat ænchouies, maccaroni, bouoli, fagioli, and cauiare, becauſe hee loues ’hem; […]1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby...

   Synonyms:

   gnocchi

4. (countable, derogatory, historical) A dandy or fop, particularly in the 18th century a young Englishman who had travelled in Europe and subsequently dressed and spoke in an ostentatiously affected Continental manner.
   • ... the Maccaroni Club (which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying-glasses) ...1764 February 6, Horace Walpole, letter to the Earl of Hertford
   • Lady Falkener's daughter is to be married to a young rich Mr. Crewe, a Macarone...1764 May 27, Horace Walpole, letter to the Earl of Hertford

   Synonyms:

   cockscomb, popinjay, poseur, barbermonger, beau, blade, blood, buck, carpet knight, dandy

5. (Caribbean, countable, historical) A 19th-century quarter-silver dollar coin, typically a full 2-real coin or a quarter clipping of an 8-real coin from Central or South America.
   • The silver coins are dollars (6s. 8d.), half dollars, and quarter dollars, or maccaronies as they are here popularly called.1808, John Stewart, An Account of Jamaica..., page 59
6. (countable, ethnic, slur) Synonym of Italian (“a person from Italy or of Italian ethnicity”).
   • Surely I shall always be able, go where I will, among frogs or maccaronis, to procure sucre noir, or inchiostro nero.1845 December 15, Frances Anne Kemble, letter

   Synonyms:

   Italian

7. (Scotland, countable, obsolete) Synonym of lizard canary.
   • Lizards are known among Scotchmen as ‘macaronies’.1876, Robert Linlithgow Wallace, The Canary Book, page 165

   Synonyms:

   lizard canary

8. (obsolete, uncountable) A mix of languages in macaronic verse.
   • ... political songs in Latin or in a maccaroni of Latin and English ...1884, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, volume I, page 166
9. (Australia, slang, uncountable) Nonsense; meaningless talk.
   • Yes. Jam, macaroni, cockadoodle. We're plain people out hereaways, not mantle ornaments.1924, D. H. Lawrence et al., The Boy in the Bush, page 46

   Synonyms:

   absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil

Adjective

macaroni (comparative more macaroni, superlative most macaroni)

1. (historical) Chic, fashionable, stylish; in the manner of a macaroni.

Noun (2)

UK/mak.əˈɹəʊ.ni/US/ˌmækəˈɹoʊni/

macaroni (plural macaronis)

1. (obsolete) A macaroon.
   • Macaroni. It comes from Italy. It is a biscuit made of almonds, eggs, flower, and sugar.1777, Charlotte Mason, The lady's assistant for regulating and supplying her table: being a complete system of cookery, containing one hundred and fifty select bills of fare, properly disposed for...