cheese

English

Cheese for sale in a market.

Pronunciation

• enPR: chēz, IPA: /tʃiːz/, SAMPA: /tSi:z/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːz

Etymology 1

From Middle English chese, from Old English ċēse, ċīese (“cheese”), from Proto-Germanic *kāsijaz (“cheese”), from Latin cāseus (“cheese”), from Proto-Indo-European *kwat- (“to ferment, become sour”). Cognate with West Frisian tsiis (“cheese”), Dutch kaas (“cheese”), German Käse (“cheese”). Also related to Old English hwaþerian (“to roar, foam, surge”), Swedish dialect hvå (“foam”), Latvian kūsāt (“to boil”), Old Church Slavonic  (kvasŭ, “leaven; sour drink”), Sanskrit  (kváthati, “it boils”).

Noun

cheese (usually uncountable; plural cheeses)

1. (uncountable) A dairy product made from curdled or cultured milk.
2. (countable) Any particular variety of cheese.
3. (countable) A piece of cheese, especially one moulded into a large round shape during manufacture.
4. (uncountable, colloquial) That which is melodramatic, overly emotional, or cliché, i.e. cheesy.
5. (uncountable, slang) Money.
6. (countable, slang, baseball) A fastball.
7. (uncountable, slang) A dangerous mixture of black tar heroin and crushed Tylenol PM tablets. The resulting powder resembles grated cheese and is snorted.
8. (vulgar, slang) Smegma.

Hyponyms

• See also Wikisaurus:cheese

Derived terms

terms derived from “cheese”

Abertam cheese American cheese apple-cheese Añejo cheese Asiago cheese basket cheese bleu cheese blue cheese Bonchester cheese bread and cheese brick cheese Brussels' cheese Buxton Blue cheese Cabrales cheese Caerphilly cheese Caithness cheese Camembert cheese cauliflower cheese chalk and cheese Chaumes cheese Cheddar cheese cheese and bread cheese-bail cheese board, cheese-board, cheeseboard cheese-borer cheese-bowl cheese-box cheese-bug cheeseburger cheese-cement cheesecake cheese cloth, cheesecloth, cheese-clout cheese-cratch cheese-crate cheese curds cheese-cutter, cheesecutter cheesed, cheesed off cheese dip cheese dish cheese down cheese fingers cheese-grater cheese-fly cheese-hake, cheese-heck cheese-head cheese-headed cheese-hoop cheese-hopper, cheesehopper cheese-knife cheese ladder cheeseling

cheese-maggot cheese-mite cheese-moat cheese-mold, cheese-mould cheesemonger cheese off cheese-pale cheese-parer cheese-paring, cheeseparing cheese-plate cheese powder cheese-press cheeser cheese rack/cheese-rack cheese-ramekin cheese-rennet cheese-room cheese-running cheesery the Cheeses cheese-scoop cheese skipper cheese slaw cheese slicer cheese spread cheese straw cheese-taster cheese-toaster cheese-tub cheese-vat cheese-water cheesewire cheesewood cheese-wring cheesine cheesing cheesy Cheez Whiz Cheshire cheese Chevington cheese chèvre cheese Chihuahua cheese cock cheese Colby cheese Colby-Jack cheese Coon cheese Cornish Yarg cheese cotija cheese cottage cheese Cougar Gold cheese cream cheese, cream-cheese Criollo cheese Cuba cheese curd cheese

damson cheese, damson-cheese Danish Blue cheese Derby cheese Dorset Blue Vinney cheese Dorstone cheese Double Gloucester cheese Dovedale cheese Duberry cheese Dunlop cheese Dutch cheese Easy Cheese Edam cheese Emmental cheese, Emmenthal cheese Exmoor Blue cheese farmer cheese, farmer's cheese feta cheese Gloucester cheese goat cheese Gouda cheese Grana Padano cheese grated cheese green cheese Gruyère cheese hard cheese head-cheese, headcheese, head cheese hoop cheese Horeb cheese human cheese Huntsman cheese Idiazabal cheese Ilchester cheese jack cheese jalapeño cheese Jarlsberg cheese Lancashire cheese Leicester cheese Leidse cheese, Leyden cheese lemon cheese Liederkranz cheese Limburg cheese, Limburger cheese Lincolnshire Poacher cheese Lymeswold cheese macaroni and cheese, macaroni cheese make butter and cheese of make cheeses Manchego cheese Maytag Blue cheese mousetrap cheese mozzarella cheese

Muenster cheese, Munster cheese, Münster cheese Nabulsi cheese Neufchâtel cheese nipcheese Nökkelost cheese Oaxaca cheese Oka cheese Parmesan cheese pepper jack cheese pick-cheese pimento cheese Pinconning cheese pizza cheese pot cheese processed cheese Provel cheese rat cheese Red Leicester cheese Red Windsor cheese ricotta cheese romano cheese ruen cheese sage-cheese Sage Derby cheese Saint-André cheese Sakura cheese say cheese Shropshire Blue cheese Single Gloucester cheese slip cheese smoked cheese sour milk cheese Stilton cheese Stinking Bishop cheese store cheese string cheese Swaledale cheese Swiss cheese Testouri cheese Teviotdale cheese Tilsit cheese, Tilsiter cheese tip-cheese toad-cheese, toad's cheese Tyrolean grey cheese Västerbotten cheese Valdeón cheese Waterloo cheese Wensleydale cheese White Stilton cheese Yunnan cheese Zamorano cheese

Translations

dairy product

Afrikaans: kaas (af) Albanian: djathë (sq) m. Amuzgo: kesò Arabic: جبنة (júbna) f., جبن (jubn) m. Morocco: فروماج (fromāž) Armenian: պանիր (hy) (panir) Aromanian: cash Asturian: quesu Aymara: kisu Azeri: pendir (az) Basque: gazta Bavarian: Kaas m. Belarusian: сыр (be) (syr) m. Bengali: (ponir) Bosnian: sir (bs) m. Breton: keuz m., formaj m. Bulgarian: сирене (bg) (sirene) n. Catalan: formatge (ca) m. Cherokee: ᎤᏅᏗ ᎦᏚᏅ (unvdi gadunv) Chinese: Mandarin: 乾酪 (cmn), 干酪 (cmn) (gānlào), 乳酪 (cmn) (rǔlào), 奶酪 (cmn) (nǎilào), 芝士 (cmn) (zhīshì) Min Nan: chhì-juh Crimean Tatar: penir, qaşqaval Croatian: sir (hr) m. Czech: sýr (cs) m. Dalmatian: chis m. Danish: ost (da) c. Dutch: kaas (nl) m. Esperanto: fromaĝo (eo) Estonian: juust (et) Ewe: notsi babla, notsi kpẽke Faroese: ostur (fo) m. Finnish: juusto (fi) French: fromage (fr) m. Friulian: formadi m. Galician: queixo (gl) m. Georgian: ყველი (q‘veli) German: Käse m., Kas m. (Bavarian) Greek: τυρί (el) (tyrí) n. Ancient: τυρός (tirós) m. Greenlandic: immussuaq (kl) Guaraní: kesu Hebrew: גְּבִינָה (g'viná) f. Hindi: पनीर (hi) (panīr) m. Hungarian: sajt (hu) Icelandic: ostur (is) m. Ido: fromajo (io) Indonesian: keju (id) Interlingua: caseo (ia) Irish: cáis (ga) f. Italian: formaggio (it) m., cacio (it) m. Japanese: チーズ (ja) (chiizu), 乾酪 (ja) (かんらく, kanraku) Javanese: kèju Kazakh: ірімшік (irimşik), сыр (kk) (syr) Kinyarwanda: ifromaje Korean: 치즈 (ko) (chijeu), 치이즈 (ko) (chiijeu) Kurdish: په‌نیر (ku), penîr (ku) Kyrgyz: сыр (ky) (syr) Latgalian: sīrs Latin: caseus m., formaticum n.

Latvian: siers (lv) m. Lithuanian: sūris Low Saxon: Kees Luxembourgish: Kéis (lb) m. Macedonian: сирење (mk) (sírenje) n. Malay: keju (ms) Malayalam: ചീസ് (ml) (cīs) Maltese: ġobon (mt) m. Marathi: चीझ (mr) (cījh) Mongolian: бяслаг (mn) (byaslag) Nahuatl: tlatetzauhtli Navajo: géeso Neapolitan: caso m. Norman: fronmage m. Norwegian: ost (no) m. Occitan: formatge (oc) m. Old Church Slavonic: сꙑръ (syrŭ) m. Old English: ċȳse (ang) m. Old Norse: ostr m. Oriya: please add this translation if you can Ossetian: цыхт (cyxt) Pashto: پوڅه (ps) (poca) f., خيدك (ps) (xaidək) m. Persian: پنیر (pænīr) Polish: ser (pl) m. Portuguese: queijo (pt) m. Punjabi: ਪਨੀਰ (panīr) Quechua: kisu Romanian: brânză (ro) f., caș (ro) n., cașcaval (ro) n. Russian: сыр (syr) m. Scottish Gaelic: càise (gd) m. Serbian: Cyrillic: сир m. Roman: sir m. Sicilian: furmaggiu m. Sinhalese: චීස් (si) (chīs) Slovak: syr (sk) m. Slovene: sir (sl) m. Spanish: queso (es) m. Swahili: jibini (sw), chizi (sw) Swedish: ost (sv) c. Tagalog: keso Tajik: панир Tamil: பாலாடைக் கட்டி Taos: kàsu’úna Tatar: eremçek, sır, сыр (tt) (syr) Telugu: జున్ను (te) (junnu) Thai: เนยแข็ง (noie kăeng) Turkish: peynir (tr) Turkmen: peýnir Ukrainian: сир (syr) m. Urdu: پنیر (panīr) m. Uyghur: pixlak̡, sir, irimqik Uzbek: pishlok, sir Venetian: formai Vietnamese: pho mát (vi) Võro: juust Welsh: caws (cy) m. West Frisian: tsiis m. Yiddish: קעז (kez) m. Yucatec Maya: kéex

countable: any particular variety of cheese

Danish: ost (da) c. Estonian: juust (et) Finnish: juusto (fi) French: fromage (fr) m. Greek: τυρί (tirí) n.

Norwegian: ost (no) m. Pashto: پوڅه (ps) (poca) f. Swahili: chizi (sw), jibini (sw) Swedish: ost (sv) c.

slang: money

Finnish: hillo (fi)

French: fric (fr) m.

slang: fastball in baseball

See also

• Cheese on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Cheese (recreational drug) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Cheese (recreational drug)
• butter
• cream
• milk
• turophile
• yoghurt

Verb

cheese (third-person singular simple present cheeses, present participle cheesing, simple past and past participle cheesed)

1. To prepare curds for making cheese.

Interjection

cheese!

1. (photography) Said while being photographed, to give the impression of smiling.

   Say cheese! …and there we are!

Translations

said while being photographed

Chinese: Mandarin: 茄子 (cmn) (qiézi)

Finnish: (no one equivalent)

Etymology 2

Probably from Persian چيز (čīz, “thing”).

Noun

cheese (uncountable)

1. (slang) Wealth, fame, excellence, importance.

Derived terms

• big cheese
• sub-cheese

Etymology 3

Verb

cheese (third-person singular simple present cheeses, present participle cheesing, simple past and past participle cheesed)

1. (slang) To stop; to refrain from.
2. (slang) To anger or irritate someone, usually in combination with "off".

   All this waiting around is really cheesing me off.

3. (gaming, slang) To use an unsporting tactic; to repeatedly use an attack which is overpowered or difficult to counter

   And this douchebag decided, "I'm going to cheese because that's all I can do in life."

4. (gaming) To use an unconventional, all-in strategy to take one's opponent by surprise early in the game (especially for real-time strategy games)

   It's not every day you can see someone defend a cheese maneuver with a planetary fortress and win the game without using a single unit.

Derived terms

• cheese it
• cheesed off