macaroni

noun

1. (uncountable)A type of pasta in the form of short tubes, typically boiled and served in soup, with a sauce, or in melted cheese; a dish of this.

   “Take half a pound of small pipe-macaroni.”

   “"I can recommend this macaroni, for it is my favourite dish: I am very national. You will not take any? Ah, young ladies are, or ought to be, light eaters. Your ladyship will, I trust, set your fair companion an example."”

2. (broadly, informal, obsolete, uncountable)Pasta, particularly thicker noodles, spaghetti.

   “Paste made into strings like pack-thread or thongs of whit-leather (which if greater they call Macaroni, if lesser Vermicelli) they cut in pieces and put in their pots as we do oat-meal to make their menestra or broth of.”

   “MACARONI... is a preparation of wheat originally peculiar to Italy, in which country it is an article of food of national importance. The same substance in different forms is also known as vermicelli, pasta or Italian pastes, taglioni, fanti, &c.”

3. (obsolete, uncountable)Synonym of gnocchi (“Italian dumpling made of potato or semolina”).

   “Maccaróni, a kind of meat made of round peeces of paste, boyled in water and put into a dish with butter, spice and grated-cheese vpon them.”

   “He doth learne to make ſtrange ſauces, to eat ænchouies, maccaroni, bouoli, fagioli, and cauiare, becauſe hee loues ’hem; […]”

4. (countable, derogatory, historical)A dandy or fop, particularly in the 18th century a young Englishman who had travelled in Europe and subsequently dressed and spoke in an ostentatiously affected Continental manner.

   “... the Maccaroni Club (which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying-glasses) ...”

   “Lady Falkener's daughter is to be married to a young rich Mr. Crewe, a Macarone...”

   “There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up amongst us. It is called a Macaroni. It talks without meaning, it smiles without pleasantry, it eats without appetite, it rides without exercise, it wenches without passion.”

   “I wanted you to be a man of spirit; your ambition was to appear a first-rate Macaroni; you are returned fully qualified, and determined, I see, to shew the world what a contemptible creature an English-man dwindles into, when he adopts the follies and vices of other nations.”

   “'Sure never were seen two such beautiful Ponies; Other Horses are Clowns—and these macaronies”

5. (Caribbean, countable, historical)A 19th-century quarter-silver dollar coin, typically a full 2-real coin or a quarter clipping of an 8-real coin from Central or South America.

   “The silver coins are dollars (6s. 8d.), half dollars, and quarter dollars, or maccaronies as they are here popularly called.”

6. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis)Ellipsis of macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus).

   “15 penguins were hatched and reared in the Edinburgh Zoo—seven kings, four gentoos, three maccaronis, and one ringed.”

7. (countable, ethnic, slur)Synonym of Italian (“a person from Italy or of Italian ethnicity”).

   “Surely I shall always be able, go where I will, among frogs or maccaronis, to procure sucre noir, or inchiostro nero.”

8. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, obsolete)Ellipsis of macaroni tool.

   “Now take the maccaroni and cut away the wood on either side of the vein...”

9. (Scotland, countable, obsolete)Synonym of lizard canary.

   “Lizards are known among Scotchmen as ‘macaronies’.”

10. (obsolete, uncountable)A mix of languages in macaronic verse.

    “... political songs in Latin or in a maccaroni of Latin and English ...”

11. (Australia, slang, uncountable)Nonsense; meaningless talk.

    “Yes. Jam, macaroni, cockadoodle. We're plain people out hereaways, not mantle ornaments.”

12. (obsolete)A macaroon.

    “Macaroni. It comes from Italy. It is a biscuit made of almonds, eggs, flower, and sugar.”

adj

1. (historical)Chic, fashionable, stylish; in the manner of a macaroni.