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muffin

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: MUFFIN and Muffin

English

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English muffins (etymology 1 sense 1).
A muffin (etymology 1 sense 2) with a spreading muffin top.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈmʌfɪn/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌfɪn

Etymology 1

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From earlier moofin, probably a diminutive of Low German Muffe ("small cake"; Muffen (plural)), from Middle Low German muffe (“small pastry”). An alternative, and phonologically less plausible theory suggests a connection to Old French (pain) moflet (“roll”, literally “soft (bread)”). Sense “vulva” influenced by muff.

Noun

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muffin (plural muffins)

  2. (British) A type of flattish bun, usually cut in two horizontally, toasted and spread with butter, etc., before being eaten.
    Synonym: (US) English muffin
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 174:
      […] but he had still at intervals a kind listener in Mrs. Phillips, and was by her watchfulness, most abundantly supplied with coffee and muffin.
    • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVI, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
      We take a less gloomy view of our errors now our father confessor listens to us over his egg and coffee. We are more distinctly conscious that rude penances are out of the question for gentlemen in an enlightened age, and that mortal sin is not incompatible with an appetite for muffins.
    • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:
      It was felt at once that the mouth did not come over from Sleswig with a band of Saxon pirates whose lips met like the two halves of a muffin.
    • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, Beyond the City‎[1]:
      Little did poor Doctor Walker imagine as he sat at his breakfast-table next morning that the two sweet girls who sat on either side of him were deep in a conspiracy, and that he, munching innocently at his muffins, was the victim against whom their wiles were planned.
    • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
      “A cup of tea and a muffin, please,” he ordered.
  4. A cupcake-shaped baked good (for example of cornbread, banana bread, or a chocolate dough), sometimes glazed but typically without frosting, eaten especially for breakfast (in contrast to a cupcake, which is a dessert).
    Coordinate terms: cupcake, mug cake
    • 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop‎[2], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC:
      Aubrey got a bowl of soup, a cup of coffee, beef stew, and bran muffins, and took them to an empty seat by the window. He ate with one eye on the street.
    • 1920, Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      Newland and his wife had had no idea of obeying this injunction; but Mrs. Carfry, with her usual acuteness, had run them down and sent them an invitation to dine; and it was over this invitation that May Archer was wrinkling her brows across the tea and muffins.
    • 2007, New York, volume 40, page 129:
      […] to prepare sustenance like roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, vinaigrettes, guacamole, and bananabread muffins.
    • 2014, Martha Stone, Muffin Tin Menus: 32 Recipes That Are Delicious and Easy to Make, page 1:
      To start we'll go with an easy choice, a delicious chocolate muffin made with Mexican chocolate that goes well with ice cream or fruit […]
    • 2017, Maria Emmerich, Keto Comfort Foods, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 58:
      Dust the frosted muffins with cocoa powder. […] Store extras in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. The muffins can be frozen if unfrosted, but do not freeze the frosting.
    • 2021, Katarina Cermelj, Baked to Perfection: Delicious gluten-free recipes with a pinch of science, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
      Originally, I planned to write two sections here – one about how you get flat cupcakes and one about how to get tall, domed muffins. It quickly became clear that I was pretty much writing the same thing twice: factors that make cupcakes flat in opposite make muffins domed, unsurprisingly enough.
  5. (colloquial, endearing) Term of endearment.
    Synonyms: cupcake; see also Thesaurus:sweetheart
    I love you, muffin!
  6. (vulgar, slang) The vulva or vagina; pubic hair around it.
    Synonyms: muff; see also Thesaurus:vagina
    • 1986, “Stuffin' Martha's Muffin”, in Frenzy, performed by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper:
      I wanna be stuffin' Martha's muffin!
    • 2004, Tina Fey, Mean Girls (motion picture), spoken by Jason (Daniel DeSanto):
      Is your muffin buttered?
    • 2012 September, Barely Legal, →ISSN, page 42:
      She peeled off her clothes and stretched out on a towel. At first she lay still, then slowly Maddie slid a hand down her smooth tummy and into her muffin.
  7. (baseball, slang) A less talented player; one who muffs, or drops the ball.
  8. (dated or LGBTQ slang) A charming, attractive young man. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  9. (dated) A small plate, smaller than a twiffler.
  10. (UK dialect, Northern England, especially Manchester) A roll, bap or cob, which may or may not be flat or toasted.
  11. (ice hockey, slang) A very weak shot in ice hockey where the puck does not travel fast.
  12. (Canada, slang, archaic) A young woman who would regularly accompany a particular man during a social season. [late 1800s]
    • 1854, Margaret Oliphant, quoting Laurence Oliphant, Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice Oliphant, His Wife, new edition, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1892, page 92:
      I had a charming muffin yesterday. She is engaged to be married, so don't be alarmed.
    • [1865, William Howard Russell, Canada: Its Defenses, Condition, and Resources, London: Bradbury and Evans, page 149:
      The fair Canadians may have been too kind in accepting the name and position of "muffins" from the young Britishry; but the latter cannot say they have suffered much in consequence. A muffin is simply a lady who sits beside the male occupant of the sleigh—Sola cum solo, "and all the rest is leather and prunella."]
    • 1904, Arthur Griffiths, Fifty Years of Public Service, London […]: Cassel and Company, Limited, pages 52–53:
      A long string of two-seated sleighs, a pleasant tête-à-tête drive for many miles snugly ensconced in the buffalo robes with your "muffin" by your side, a halt at some hospitable settler's, and an impromptu dance in his barn, wTith a return journey in the crisp moonlight air, left impressions that are still vivid. ¶ The "muffin" was a social institution of those days, which may or may not have survived. Every young swain by unwritten but acknowledged law was permitted to make his choice of a partner for the season, with whom he danced exclusively, and whom he drove in his sleigh and skated with hand in hand.
  13. (Java programming language) A mechanism used in the Java Network Launching Protocol analogous to the cookie mechanism and which permits a program running in a browser to perform operations on a client machine.
    • 2001 May 30, “Technical Articles and Tips”, in Sun Developer Network‎[3], archived from the original on 9 July 2008, JNLP and Java Web Start:
      The name/value pairs provided by the PersistenceService are similar to browser cookies. The Java Web Start implementation honors this legacy by naming the pairs "muffins."
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked‌: "individual cake"

Verb

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muffin (third-person singular simple present muffins, present participle muffining, simple past and past participle muffined)

  1. (intransitive) To eat muffins.
    • 1837, Benjamin Disraeli, Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1835-1837, Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, published 1982, →ISBN, page 319:
      I dined yesterday at | three on mutton chops and 1/2 pint of E[ast] I [ndian] sherry, and then tead and muffined at 8.
    • 1965 October 12, “Gingerbread Muffins Start Day Off Right”, in The Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alta., page 39:
      And now comes a recipe guaranteed to keep the family happily muffined.
    • 1987 January 27, Concetta Doucette, “Savings”, in Impact (Albuquerque Journal Magazine), volume 10, number 15, page 13:
      NANCY SCRAPES OFF the mold without complaining because it is like a gift from Carl, and she doesn’t have the heart to tell him she is muffined out …
    • 1988 February 28, Bea Lewis, “For Teatime Or Anytime”, in The Newsday Magazine, page 35:
      HAVE YOU muffined out, had more than your share of croissants?
    • 2005, Marlin E. Misner, editor, History of the Reagan Home: The Boyhood Home in Dixon, Illinois, →ISBN, page 35:
      We met about 8:00 A.M. for the usual continental breakfast – I am getting over muffined!
    • 2007, Jane Sigaloff, The Romancipation of Maggie Hunter, Red Dress Ink, →ISBN, page 159:
      ‘So what I can get you to celebrate. Bit of cake?’ ‘I’m all muffined up, thanks!’
    • 2017, Carrie Ewin, Chris Ewin, Cheryl Ewin, “Lesson 5: Creating Text Posts”, in Facebook for Seniors: Connect with Friends and Family in 12 Easy Lessons, San Francisco, Caif.: No Starch Press, →ISBN, section “Viewing Your Posts on Your Timeline”, page 97:
      Hehe, I've eaten three apple muffins this morning. I've all muffined out!
  2. (transitive) To feed muffins to.
    • 1866, Emma Jane Worboise, “The St. Beetha’s Temperance Society”, in St. Beetha’s; or, The Heiress of Arne, London: “Christian World” Office, […]; Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, […], →OCLC, page 213:
      But one or two evil-disposed characters muttered they might be sure the lady had her own turn to serve, and they might be sure they wasn't "teaed and muffined and sandwiched for nothing!"
    • 1999, Working Woman, page 96:
      We were caffeined and muffined and then asked to seat ourselves at any of several large round tables.
    • 2001, Nancy Huston, Dolce Agonia, Toronto, Ont.: McArthur & Company, →ISBN, page 102:
      Well, you know, my mother always told me to welcome new neighbors with muffins, and I just realized you’ve already been here six months and I still haven’t gotten around to baking muffins for you … Well anyway, that’s all I wanted to tell you — consider yourself muffined!
    • 2023, Earl Laman, chapter 20, in Being With…, Meadville, Pa.: Fulton Books, →ISBN:
      Grandma Bessie saw me and muffined me.
  3. (intransitive) To become like a muffin; to increase in size.
    • 2009 August, Sophie Littlefield, A Bad Day for Sorry, New York, N.Y.: Minotaur Books, →ISBN, page 48:
      A pale band of flesh muffined up over her shorts, her lively top not quite up to the task of covering it, and Chrissy tugged at the fabric ineffectively.
    • 2009 December, James Axler [house name; Nick Pollotta], “Prologue”, in Time Castaways (Deathlands), Worldwide Library, page 16:
      In spite of wearing the largest size of body armor available, her ample breasts were simply much too big, and deliciously muffined over the top.
    • 2013, E[lizabeth] F[rancine] Winters, chapter 15, in Sharks and Minnows (book one of The Jolie Chronicles), Kenspeckle Productions, LLC, →ISBN, page 173:
      Baby fat muffined over the top of Rebecca’s jeans.
    • 2014, Terry Dowling, “The Four Darks”, in Ellen Datlow, editor, Fearful Symmetries: An Anthology of Horror, ChiZine Publications, →ISBN, page 117:
      Allan Grace was lean, but his neck muffined out over the crisp white collar.
    • 2014, David Mason, Walk Across Australia: The First Solo Crossing, Rosenberg Publishing, →ISBN:
      Beers rested on bellies that muffined over shorts.
    • 2016, Adam Biles, Feeding Time, Galley Beggar Press, →ISBN:
      It may have been Nurse Agnes’ looping signature that touched him off, or the way flesh muffined from the pumps of the fat lady that boarded the bus at his stop every morning: a spark is a spark, and one was as good as any other.
  4. (transitive) To make like a muffin.
    • 1920, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 418:
      Twanty-two harrin’ and t’ree ship’s biscuits, muffined like! Ah, yew doan’t know what muffined biscuits be!
    • 1924, Edmund Vance Cooke, “Fat”, in Companionable Poems, page 183:
      WE HAVE too many raisins in our cake; / Our bread is muffined.
    • 1944, Harper’s Bazaar, page 63:
      Toques high as Queen Mary’s or low as a pillbox, extended and thickened and muffined at the edge.
    • 1990, Caleb Pirtle, The Land Where We Belong, Leisure Time Publishing, →ISBN, page 91:
      Muffined Eggs with Mushrooms

Etymology 2

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Verb

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muffin (third-person singular simple present muffins, present participle muffining, simple past and past participle muffined)

  1. (transitive, computing, historical) Alternative letter-case form of MUFFIN.
    • 1981 July 6, Joel Pitt, “InfoWorld Software Review: Micro-Painter: Apple Coloring Program”, in InfoWorld, section “Usefulness”, page 16:
      (The package may also be “muffined” by those users who wish to take advantage of the greater disk capacity available using the new Apple DOS 3.3).
    • 1982, Microcomputing, page 157:
      Print II is supplied on a DOS 3.2 disk (it can be muffined to DOS 3.3 ), which contains programs to customize Print II for specific memory configurations and several simple demonstration programs.
    • 1983, InCider, pages 83 and 92:
      Second, any material that is indicated as 3.2 DOS must either be muffined to 3.3 DOS, or booted after using the Basics Utility to reconfigure your DOS to 13-sector. […] DOS 3.2 is used in this mode, but files may be muffined to DOS 3.3 if desired.

References

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Danish

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Etymology

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From English muffin.

Noun

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muffin c (singular definite muffinen, plural indefinite muffins)

  1. muffin (cake)

Declension

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Declension of muffin
common
gender 		singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative muffin muffinen muffins muffinsene
genitive muffins muffinens muffins' muffinsenes

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English muffin.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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muffin m (plural muffins, no diminutive)

  1. muffin (cupcake-shaped baked good)

Derived terms

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References

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Further reading

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English muffin.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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muffin m (plural muffins)

  1. muffin

Further reading

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Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English muffin.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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muffin m animal

  1. muffin (cake)

Declension

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Declension of muffin
singular plural
nominative muffin muffiny
genitive muffina muffinów
dative muffinowi muffinom
accusative muffina/muffin muffiny
instrumental muffinem muffinami
locative muffinie muffinach
vocative muffinie muffiny

Further reading

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  • muffin in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English muffin.

Noun

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muffin m (plural muffins)

  1. muffin (type of small cake)
    Synonyms: queque, bolo inglês

Further reading

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