biscuit

¹ American  

[bis-kit] / ˈbɪs kɪt /

noun

1. a kind of bread in small, soft cakes, raised with baking powder or soda, or sometimes with yeast; scone.

2. Chiefly British.

   1. a dry and crisp or hard bread in thin, flat cakes, made without yeast or other raising agent; a cracker.

   2. a cookie.

3. a pale-brown color.

4. Also called bisque.  Ceramics. unglazed earthenware or porcelain after firing.

5. Also called preform.  a piece of plastic or the like, prepared for pressing into a phonograph record.

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adjective

1. having the color biscuit.

biscuit ² American  

[bees-kwee] / bisˈkwi /

noun

French.

1. a cookie or cracker.

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biscuit British  

/ ˈbɪskɪt /

noun

1. US and Canadian word: cookie.  a small flat dry sweet or plain cake of many varieties, baked from a dough

2. a kind of small roll similar to a muffin

3. 1. a pale brown or yellowish-grey colour

   2. ( as adjective )

      biscuit gloves

4. Also called: bisque.  earthenware or porcelain that has been fired but not glazed

5. slang to be regarded (by the speaker) as the most surprising thing that could have occurred

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Other Word Forms

• biscuitlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of biscuit

1300–50; Middle English bysquyte < Middle French biscuit ( Medieval Latin biscoctus ), variant of bescuit seamen's bread, literally, twice cooked, equivalent to bes bis ¹ + cuit, past participle of cuire < Latin coquere to cook ¹

Example Sentences

One group, known as content neurons, responded to specific images such as a biscuit, regardless of the task being performed.

From Science Daily • Mar. 24, 2026

The $3 and less menu will include items like a sausage biscuit or a 4-piece chicken McNuggets, and it replaces the buy-one-add-one-for-a-dollar menu introduced in 2025.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

A Sydney man who tried to post native lizards, dragons and other reptiles out of Australia in bags of popcorn and biscuit tins has been sentenced to eight years in jail, authorities said Tuesday.

From Barron's • Feb. 17, 2026

"If you succumb to temptation you basically give in. You eat that biscuit and then you carry on eating."

From BBC • Jan. 4, 2026

I’d say, and I’d scramble her an egg and feed a biscuit to Dismay.

From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles

Related Words

• camel
• cream
• khaki
• off-white
• tan
• taupe