Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- 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 a 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A small cake (usually sweetened) fried in a kettle of boiling lard.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small spongy cake made of dough (usually sweetened and spiced) and fried in lard.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a toroidal shape
- n. a small ring-shaped friedcake
Etymologies
Examples
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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.
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It says that the doughnut is a loved Canadian food.
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Scott Kennedy, Scout.com's recruiting director, said Wisconsin's quarterback vacancy made it the perfect example of what he calls a "doughnut" team.
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They sought what they called a doughnut hole-shaped district, centered on the county.
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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.
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On Monday, he will start a humble, Hillary Rodham Clinton-like "listening tour" in doughnut shops and L stops through eight city neighborhoods.
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Yep, that doughnut is still heading directly to you-know-where whether you eat it at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m.
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Stokes arrested in doughnut shop; faces federal charge of faking military discharge records
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The first is commonly known as the "doughnut model".
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If her doughnut is chosen from the 12 finalists, it will land on Dunkin 'Donuts' shelves this year.
EditorMark commented on the word doughnut
"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,donut&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3
September 12, 2011
maux commented on the word doughnut
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 partridge dictionary&pg=PA216#v=onepage&q&f;=false
May 6, 2010
bilby commented on the word doughnut
They're lutherburgers.
October 4, 2008
skipvia commented on the word doughnut
Beef, cheese, bacon, and doughnut sandwiches. Could it get any worse than this?
October 4, 2008
yarb commented on the word doughnut
...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
July 26, 2008
jennarenn commented on the word doughnut
Not in my county, but Fairfax is known for doing its own thing.
August 11, 2007
oroboros commented on the word doughnut
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.
August 10, 2007
reesetee commented on the word doughnut
Yep. English is a mishmash, all right.
August 10, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word doughnut
Actually, I think English could do with some additional simplification. It would make my job a lot easier! Case in point: /ough/.
August 10, 2007
reesetee commented on the word doughnut
So is changing word spelling to almost phonetic simplicity--like, say, Krispy Kreme. ;->
August 9, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word doughnut
Regardless of the spelling, anything fried is pretty American.
August 9, 2007
seanahan commented on the word doughnut
I have to disagree. I would say Dunkin Donuts is the epitome of Americana.
August 9, 2007
vinyl commented on the word doughnut
Donut is not the American spelling
August 8, 2007