madeleine

[ mad-l-in, mad-l-eyn; French maduh-len ]

noun,plural mad·e·leines [mad-l-inz, mad-l-eynz; French maduh-len]. /ˈmæd l ɪnz, ˌmæd lˈeɪnz; French madəˈlɛn/. French Cooking.
  1. a small shell-shaped cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in a mold.

  2. something that triggers memories or nostalgia: in allusion to a nostalgic passage in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

Origin of madeleine

1
1835–45; <French, earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the female given name; the attribution of the recipe to an 18th-century cook named Madeleine Pau(l)mier is unsubstantiated

Other definitions for Madeleine (2 of 2)

Madeleine
[ mad-l-in, -lahyn; French maduh-len ]

noun
  1. a female given name, form of Magdalene.

  • Also Mad·e·laine, Mad·e·lene [mad-l-in], /ˈmæd l ɪn/, Mad·e·line, Mad·e·lyn.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use madeleine in a sentence

  • One should give only from ze happiness of ze heart, Madeline.

    Tabitha at Ivy Hall | Ruth Alberta Brown
  • Madeline Spencer, in a shimmering white negligée, was standing in the doorway.

    The Princess Dehra | John Reed Scott
  • When they had gone, Lotzen dismissed every one with a nod, and sitting down drew Madeline Spencer on his knee.

    The Princess Dehra | John Reed Scott
  • And Dehra caught the gleam when it flashed the brightest, and in a fury of desire she drove at Madeline Spencer.

    The Princess Dehra | John Reed Scott
  • I should have been considered wiser had I been so, but my thoughts instantly flew to Madeline Carlyon.

    Hurricane Hurry | W.H.G. Kingston

British Dictionary definitions for madeleine

madeleine

/ (ˈmædəlɪn, -ˌleɪn) /


noun
  1. a small fancy sponge cake

Origin of madeleine

1
C19: perhaps after Madeleine Paulmier, French pastry cook

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012