Word.ws English Dictionary

ratafee

ratafee is the obsolete form of ratafia.

Meaning of ratafia

Noun

ratafia (countable and uncountable, plural ratafias)

  1. A liqueur or cordial flavored with peach or cherry kernels, bitter almonds, or other fruits.
    • “Stop that there infernal screeching!” said a couple of ladies, who were sipping ratafia in company with two pretty fellows.1839, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine: A Story
  2. (countable) A kind of biscuit made with ratafia essence and almond or apricot kernels.
    • Mrs. Chaloner ordered wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr. Freely to understand that she should find his shop a great convenience. So did the doctor’s wife, and so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill, who, having high connexions frequently visiting her, might be expected to have a large...1864, George Eliot, chapter II, in Brother Jacob
    Synonyms:
    ratafia biscuit

Forms of ratafee

pluralratafees

Questions about ratafee

What is ratafee the obsolete form of?
Ratafee is the obsolete form of ratafia.

Words near ratafee in the dictionary

  1. ratabilities
  2. ratability
  3. ratable
  4. ratables
  5. ratably
  6. ratafee
  7. ratafees
  8. ratafia
  9. ratafia biscuit
  10. ratafia biscuits
  11. ratafias

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ratafee (page history and authors); ratafia (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.

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