maccaroni

Noun

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

   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

   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

   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

   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

See all 11 meanings of macaroni