Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small ring-shaped cake made of rich, light dough that is fried in deep fat. Also called regionally olicook.
- n. Something whose form is reminiscent of a ring-shaped cake.
- n. A fast, tight 360° turn made in a motor vehicle or motorized boat.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small spongy cake made of dough (usually sweetened and spiced) and fried in lard.
Wiktionary
- adj. A fat person.
- n. A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, commonly of a toroidal (a ring doughnut) often mixed with various sweeteners and flavourings; or flattened sphere (a filled doughnut) shape filled with jam, custard or cream.
- n. Anything in the shape of a torus.
- n. A peel-out or skid-mark in the shape of circle; a 360-degree skid.
- n. A spare car tyre, usually stored in the boot, that is smaller than a full sized tyre and is only intended for temporary use.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small cake (usually sweetened) fried in a kettle of boiling lard.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a toroidal shape
- n. a small ring-shaped friedcake
Examples
“The word doughnut was coined in the United States in the 19th century to name what the Dutch called olykoeks, portions of fried sweetened dough.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“It says that the doughnut is a loved Canadian food.”
“Scott Kennedy, Scout.com's recruiting director, said Wisconsin's quarterback vacancy made it the perfect example of what he calls a "doughnut" team.”
The Wall Street Journal: How Wisconsin Imported a Quarterback
“They sought what they called a doughnut hole-shaped district, centered on the county.”
“Most of us know that a jelly glazed doughnut is not a healthy snack option, and that hitting the vending machine in the late afternoon isn't the best idea.”
The Huffington Post: Are Your "Healthy" Snacks Really Good For You? (PHOTOS)
“On Monday, he will start a humble, Hillary Rodham Clinton-like "listening tour" in doughnut shops and L stops through eight city neighborhoods.”
The Washington Post: For candidate Emanuel, some see steep learning curve
“Yep, that doughnut is still heading directly to you-know-where whether you eat it at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m.”
The Washington Post: Magazine debunks nutrition and food myths
“Stokes arrested in doughnut shop; faces federal charge of faking military discharge records”
“The first is commonly known as the "doughnut model".”
The Washington Post: Utah Republicans ponder Matheson's fate
“If her doughnut is chosen from the 12 finalists, it will land on Dunkin 'Donuts' shelves this year.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘doughnut’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Let Them Eat Cake...
Tasty confectionery trinkets for the listless masses.
petit four, bon bon, scone, crumpet, meringue, cupcake, beignet, tart, tiramisu, ladyfingers, fritter, crepe and 43 more...
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Jams, Jellies, and Preserves
I've thought of a few of the most common sorts. Additions sought.
traffic, door, toe, fish, wildlife, bean, strawberry, apricot, raspberry, blackberry, boysenberry, grape and 51 more...
EditorMark "Donuts" gets 43 million Google hits to 12.6 million for "doughnuts." But subtract 12.8 million donuts for the brand name "Dunkin' Donuts" and probably millions more for "Buckeye Donuts," "Stan's Donuts," etc.
"Doughnut" is still ahead on Google's Ngram viewer: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=doughnut%2Cdonut&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3 Sep 12, 2011
maux I just heard a BBC podcast in which someone talked about "doughnutting the Prime Minister." I looked it up: http://books.google.com/books?id=cCVnlIUTpg4C&lpg=PA216&dq=doughnut%20partridge%20dictionary&pg=PA216#v=onepage&q&f=false May 6, 2010
bilby They're lutherburgers. Oct 4, 2008
skipvia Beef, cheese, bacon, and doughnut sandwiches. Could it get any worse than this? Oct 4, 2008
yarb ...these men actually lived for several months on the mouldy scraps of whales which had been left ashore after trying out the blubber. Among the Dutch whalemen these scraps are called "fritters"; which, indeed, they greatly resemble, being brown and crisp, and smelling something like old Amsterdam housewives' dough-nuts or oly-cooks, when fresh.
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 65 Jul 25, 2008
jennarenn Not in my county, but Fairfax is known for doing its own thing. Aug 11, 2007
oroboros Jennarenn: I'm curious, is Formula Phonics still a viable, used system at the elementary school level? It was in use where I did my student teaching and then full-on partial year of teaching in a 4-5 combination classroom. Aug 10, 2007
reesetee Yep. English is a mishmash, all right. Aug 10, 2007
jennarenn Actually, I think English could do with some additional simplification. It would make my job a lot easier! Case in point: /ough/. Aug 10, 2007
reesetee So is changing word spelling to almost phonetic simplicity--like, say, Krispy Kreme. ;-> Aug 9, 2007
jennarenn Regardless of the spelling, anything fried is pretty American. Aug 9, 2007
seanahan I have to disagree. I would say Dunkin Donuts is the epitome of Americana. Aug 8, 2007
vinyl Donut is not the American spelling Aug 8, 2007