Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sweet fortified wine made chiefly from muscat grapes.
  • noun A muscat grape or raisin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as muscadel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A common name for several varieties of rich sweet wine, made in Italy, Spain, and France.
  • noun Finest raisins, dried on the vine; “sun raisins.”
  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or designating, or derived from, a muscat grapes or similar grapes

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A muscat grape or raisin, especially one from southern Spain.
  • noun A sweet wine made from these grapes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun sweet aromatic grape used for raisins and wine
  • noun wine from muscat grapes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English muscadelle, partly from Medieval Latin muscātellum (from muscātus, nutmeg, musky, from Late Latin muscus, musk; see musk) and partly from Old French muscadel (from Old Provençal, diminutive of muscat, muscat; see muscat).]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word muscatel.

Examples

  • a piece of broiled steak, and I accepted a glass of muscatel, which is the accepted ladies 'wine here.

    A Woman's Impression of the Philippines Mary Helen Fee

  • Unfortunately they don't export to the US, but their Syrah Gran Reserva and Cosecha Otoñal, a late harvest wine made with pink muscatel grapes, are almost worth the trip to Chile on their own.

    Matt Browner Hamlin: Wine Adventures in Chile Matt Browner Hamlin 2011

  • Unfortunately they don't export to the US, but their Syrah Gran Reserva and Cosecha Otoñal, a late harvest wine made with pink muscatel grapes, are almost worth the trip to Chile on their own.

    Matt Browner Hamlin: Wine Adventures in Chile Matt Browner Hamlin 2011

  • Unfortunately they don't export to the US, but their Syrah Gran Reserva and Cosecha Otoñal, a late harvest wine made with pink muscatel grapes, are almost worth the trip to Chile on their own.

    Matt Browner Hamlin: Wine Adventures in Chile Matt Browner Hamlin 2011

  • Down in the bottom of a deep locker he found a dozen bottles of angelica and muscatel.

    Chapter 32 2010

  • Unfortunately they don't export to the US, but their Syrah Gran Reserva and Cosecha Otoñal, a late harvest wine made with pink muscatel grapes, are almost worth the trip to Chile on their own.

    Matt Browner Hamlin: Wine Adventures in Chile Matt Browner Hamlin 2011

  • He stared sleepily out the window at the raindrops and started to pull on a pint bottle of urine-yellow muscatel.

    The Convict and Other Stories James Lee Burke 2010

  • His dark hair was cropped short enough to see the four-inch scar some PCP-inspired cholo had made with a broken muscatel bottle.

    Babylon Nights Daniel Depp 2010

  • He had decided to give up muscatel art for plaid capitalism.

    The Painter Tourist 2010

  • Could this be the shot-in-the-mouth that millions of not-so-God-fearing-Americans need to get the back on their feet ... stumbling and weaving to refill their snifters with some discounted muscatel from the local five and dime or bodega?

    Warren Holstein: Drinking Good for Depression? The Possible Repeal of Religious Repression 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.