fillet

English

Etymology

From Middle English filet, vylette, felet, filette, flette, from Old French filet, diminutive of fil (“thread”), from Latin fīlum (“thread”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: fĭl'ĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈfɪl.ɪt/
• (General American) (meat senses) IPA^(key): /fɪˈleɪ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlɪt, -eɪ

Noun

fillet (plural fillets)

1. (now rare) A headband; a ribbon or other band used to tie the hair up, or keep a headdress in place, or for decoration.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     In secret shadow, farre from all mens sight:
     From her faire head her fillet she undight,
     And laid her stole aside.

   • 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     A fillet binds her hair.

   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 252:

     "Know thy own worth, and reverence the lyre," is a line that should be as a fillet bound round the brow—a philactory embroidered on the garments of every son and daughter of Adam distinguished by the possession of that sacred gift, which, whether used or abused, applauded in itself or derided in its possessor, is the highest and the most inalienable distinction humanity ever has or ever can be gifted with, whether bestowed on the highest or the humblest being, in the great mass to which we all belong.

   • 1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, Mew York, published 2007, page 42:

     She was talking of Raymond Duncan, a walking absurdity who dressed in an ancient handwoven Greek costume and wore his hair in long braids reaching to his waist, adding, on ceremonial occasions, a fillet of bay-leaves.

2. A thin strip of any material, in various technical uses.
3. (construction) A heavy bead of waterproofing compound or sealant material generally installed at the point where vertical and horizontal surfaces meet.
4. (engineering, drafting, CAD) A rounded relief or cut at an edge, especially an inside edge, added for a finished appearance and to break sharp edges.
5. A strip or compact piece of meat or fish from which any bones and skin and feathers have been removed.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2:

     Fillet of a Fenny Snake, / In the Cauldron boyle and bake:

6. (UK) A premium cut of meat, especially beef, taken from below the lower back of the animal, considered to be lean and tender; also called tenderloin.

   fillet steak

7. (architecture) A thin featureless moulding/molding used as separation between broader decorative mouldings.
8. (architecture) The space between two flutings in a shaft.
9. (heraldry) An ordinary equal in breadth to one quarter of the chief, to the lowest portion of which it corresponds in position.
10. The thread of a screw.
11. A colored or gilded border.
    • 1911, George Sterling, The Swimmers‎^[1]:

      Fairer than gods and naked as the moon, The foamy fillets at their ankles strewn Less marble-white than they

12. The raised moulding around the muzzle of a gun.
13. (woodworking) Any scantling smaller than a batten.
14. (anatomy) A fascia; a band of fibres; applied especially to certain bands of white matter in the brain.
15. The loins of a horse, beginning at the place where the hinder part of the saddle rests.

Synonyms

• (a boneless cut of meat): filet

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “rounded outside edge”): round

Derived terms

• chicken fillet
• eye fillet
• fillet weld
• rolled fillet
• Scotch fillet

 

Translations

headband, ribbon

• Bulgarian: панделка (bg) f (pandelka)
• Finnish: tukkanauha
• German: Haarband n, Haargummi (de) n, Stirnband (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: ταινία f (tainía)

• Latin: vitta f
• Maori: tauri
• Old English: þwæle
• Ottoman Turkish: صاچ باغی (saç bağı)

thin strip of any material

• Bulgarian: лента (bg) f (lenta)
• Czech: plátek (cs) m
• Finnish: nauha (fi)
• German: Streifen (de) m, Band (de) n, Leiste (de) f, Stab (de) m

construction: heavy bead of waterproofing

• Finnish: saumaus
• German: Dichtfuge f, Dichtleiste f, Dichtband n, Abdichtung (de) f, Abdichtband n

engineering: rounded relief or cut

• Finnish: pyöristys (fi)
• French: congé (fr) m
• German: Kehle (de) f, Hohlkehle f, Auskehlung f, Rundung (de), Innenkehle f
• Irish: fleasc f

strip of deboned meat or fish

• Arabic: شَبَكَة (ar) (šabaka)
• Bulgarian: филе́ n (filé)
• Burmese: ပိုကျကှနျကို
• Czech: filé (cs) n, plátek (cs) m, řízek (cs) m
• Esperanto: fileo
• Finnish: leike (fi) (meat), filee (fi) (fish)
• French: filet (fr) m
• German: Filet (de) n, Lendenstück n
• Greek: φιλέτο (el) (filéto)
• Hungarian: filé (hu)
• Icelandic: lundir f pl (of beef, etc.), flak n (of fish)
• Italian: filetto (it) m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 필레 (pille)
• Latvian: filejs m
• Maori: hōripi
• Mongolian: цэвэр (mn) (cever)
• Persian: فیله (fa) (file)
• Portuguese: filé (pt) m
• Romanian: file (ro) n
• Russian: филе́ (ru) n (filé), филе́й (ru) m (filéj) (dated)
• Spanish: filete (es) m
• Swedish: filé (sv) c
• Turkish: fileto (tr)
• Ukrainian: філе́ n (filé)
• Yiddish: פֿילע (file)

architecture: thin flat molding

• German: Platte (de) f, Leiste (de) f, Kannelüre f
• Irish: líosta m, fleasc f

architecture: space between two flutings

• Finnish: harjanne (fi)
• German: Kannelüre f

heraldry: ordinary

thread of a screw

• Finnish: ruuvikierre, kierre (fi)
• German: Gewinde (de) n, Schraubengewinde n, Schraubgewinde n
• Romanian: filet (ro) n, ghivent (ro) n

colored border

• Finnish: reunaviiva
• German: Rahmen (de) m, Umrahmung f, Rand (de) m, Umrandung (de) f, Randstreifen (de) m, Goldrand (de) m

raised moulding around the muzzle

scantling

• Finnish: rima (fi)
• German: Latte (de) f, Leiste (de) f

anatomy: fascia

• Finnish: kalvo (fi)

loins of a horse

• Finnish: satula (fi)

Further reading

• Fillet in the 1921 edition of Collier's Encyclopedia.

Verb

fillet (third-person singular simple present fillets, present participle filleting, simple past and past participle filleted)

1. (transitive) To slice, bone or make into fillets.
2. (transitive) To apply, create, or specify a rounded or filled corner to.

Synonyms

• (make into fillets): bone, debone

Translations

to make into fillets

• Bulgarian: нарязвам на филета (narjazvam na fileta)
• Czech: filírovat impf, filetovat impf
• Finnish: fileerata, fileoida
• French: désosser (fr), lever les filets
• Italian: disossare (it), sfilettare
• Maori: kōhaha (of fish), mākiri (of poultry), hōripi
• Polish: filetować (pl) impf, wyfiletować (pl) pf, odfiletować pf
• Romanian: fileta (ro)
• Swedish: filea (sv)

to apply, etc, a rounded or filled corner to

• Finnish: pyöristää (fi)
• German: abkehlen

Catalan

Etymology

From fill +‎ -et.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [fiˈʎɛt]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [fiˈʎət]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [fiˈʎet]

Noun

fillet m (plural fillets, feminine filleta)

1. (Menorca) boy

   Synonym: nen

Further reading

• “fillet” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “fillet” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “fillet”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024