Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An appetizer served before a meal.
Wiktionary
- n. A small, light, and usually savory first course in a meal.
- n. Anything of secondary concern; not the primary one.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a dish served as an appetizer before the main meal
Etymologies
- French hors d'œuvre : hors, outside + de, of + œuvre, (the main) work.
Examples
“These he calls a hors d'oeuvre of some pious copyist.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hors d'oeuvre’.
-
Food words
molecular gastronomy, gastronomic, chef, sous-chef, pastry, patisserie, bakery, mandoline, champagne flute, chinois, dough, knead and 15 more...
-
Tricky Words from French
Loanwords from French -- both established and wet behind the ears -- that are tricky to spell or pronounce properly.
trompe l'oeil, hors d'oeuvre, oeuvre, objet d'art, objet trouvé, contretemps, milieu, métier, mise en scène, mise en place, éclat, faineant and 64 more...
-
Words that start with a silent H
honor, honest, heir, herb, hors d'oeuvre, hour, homage, hola, heiress, hombre, honorific, honorable and 1 more...
-
fernblatt's list
renumeratedfrog It simply means an "appetizer" but the funny thing about this word is that it sounds almost like the English "order" pronounced with a French accent. Aug 21, 2008
treeseed literally meaning "outside the work"
I find this definition adds greatly to my love of the word. I am ashamed to say I have used this word all my life and I never really knew what I was saying...the French language is filled with these beautiful descriptive nouns. Another case in point pomme de terre. Apr 30, 2008
reesetee Haha! Clever, oroboros. :-) Aug 20, 2007
oroboros Working women du nuit? Aug 16, 2007