Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A glazed, ring-shaped roll with a tough, chewy texture, made from plain yeast dough that is dropped briefly into nearly boiling water and then baked.
Wiktionary
- n. A toroidal bread roll that is boiled before it is baked.
- n. A score of 6-0 in a set (after the shape of a bagel, which looks like a zero).
- n. An overly materialistic and excessively groomed young man.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a glazed leavened doughnut-shaped roll with a hard crust.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Yiddish) glazed yeast-raised doughnut-shaped roll with hard crust
Etymologies
- Yiddish beygl, from Middle High German *böugel, diminutive of bouc, ring, from Old High German boug; see bheug- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“The best place I know to get a bagel is the Bagel Hole in Brooklyn (7th Ave between 12th and 13th Sts), where the bagels are small, dense, moist, and chewy.”
“Bagels or other bakery or grocery store: Plain bagel or honey whole-wheat bagel with 1 or 2 Tbsp. low-fat plain or low-fat strawberry cream cheese or whipped smoked salmon cream cheese”
Easy, low-calorie recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
“I know what REAL pizza tastes like, and I know that a bagel is much more than a roll with a hole in the middle.”
“I would like a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese on the side.”
“: D I love their multigrain bagel and their everything bagel.”
“I live a block away from this place, I would like to know who sourced their crack-cocaine, because +$6 for a bagel is utter insanity.”
“I had come across a delicious looking, sweet pumpkin bagel recipe over at Have Cake Will Travel a couple months ago and with a small surplus of the main ingredient lying wait in my freezer I made myself a plan.”
“As long as the Hollywood "Hebrews" can make a profit ... they're as happy as Mort Zuckerman in bagel heaven!”
“Would it spontaniously combust? what if I call my bagel a “bread casserole”, would it be safe then?”
“Peggy 6: a one-man moveon. org energizer bunny. funny -- liberals hate monopolies -- except when they grace (monopolize) a blog with their wisdom. like the Mon. morning 20-min bagel meeting that turns into 2 hours of kvetching about everything from a to z.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bagel’.
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Yiddishkeit
There are a few short lists of Yiddish words, but none appropriate to the glory of the language, and none that are open. Thought I'd start one, and would love contributions. I'm tagging as I go, an...
schmuck, nosh, chutzpah, shtick, kvetch, oy vey, oy gevalt, shvitz, shtik, shiksa, putz, mensch and 94 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 137 more...
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Yazhinni Spelling bee
tongue, stallion, scruple, salinity, schedule, rouge, populist, Permian, perspire, pasteurize, multitude, mournful and 227 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Bagel and such
bagel, ogle, boggle, toggle, snuggle, wiggle, straggle, haggle, inveigle, seagull, struggle
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Hummus
Ingredients, variations, folklore, things (and people) to eat it with, etc.
hommus, tahini, lemon juice, sweet paprika, hummus, celery stick, mushroom, bagel, ruzuzu, salt, olive, garlic and 41 more...
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Minnesota
minnesota, Minnesota, Twin Cities, gophers, Pipestone, Jolly Green Giant, Nimrod, Crow Wing River, Saint Paul, Saint Urho, Paul Bunyan, Iron Range and 39 more...
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80's SoCal Vernacular
Santa Barbara to San Diego. Pacific to the 5. Reagan till Bush.
dude, like, whatever, sup, teabagger, poseur, grom, harsh, bagel, rad, betty

milosrdenstvi In Minnesota they pronounce the vowels of "bag" and "bagel" oppositely from what I'm used to -- i.e. /beɪg/ and /bægəl/ instead of /bæg/ and /beɪgəl/. Jan 3, 2011
chained_bear Another usage on bageldom: "A stock worth zero." Feb 16, 2010
sionnach sheep ointment Jan 12, 2009
treeseed Boiling the dough before baking is what gives the wonderful chewy texture. You've never tasted a better bagel than one made in your own kitchen. Try it. Feb 3, 2008