canapé

American  

[kan-uh-pee, -pay, ka-na-pay] / ˈkæn ə pi, -ˌpeɪ, ka naˈpeɪ /

noun

• canapés
  plural

1. a thin piece of bread or toast or a cracker spread or topped with cheese, caviar, anchovies, or other savory food.

2. Furniture. a sofa of 18th-century France, made in any of several forms, often with matching chairs.

3. Bridge. a style of bidding in which short suits are bid before long ones.

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canapé British  

/ kanape, ˈkænəpɪ, -ˌpeɪ /

noun

1. a small piece of bread, toast, etc, spread with a savoury topping

2. (in French cabinetwork) a sofa

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• canapés
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of canapé

1885–90; < French: literally, a covering or netting, originally for a bed ( see canopy), by extension for a piece of bread

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Explanation

At a fancy party, that savory snack served on a small piece pastry is a canape. If you hate fish, you might want to avoid the smoked salmon canapes and instead try the little fritters with salsa on top. While canape is almost always used to mean "bite-sized party food," it also means "couch." So you could actually sit on a canape and nibble on a canape! Legend has it that a French chef trying to come up with a new type of h'ors d'oeuvre looked at his sofa and had the brilliant idea to take a small piece of bread and put something tasty on it, like a person sitting on a settee. In French, canapé means "sofa."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

canapé canapés

Scott: I had to prove I could hand someone a canapé.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

This canapé base is a collard blini, layered with a light and airy chevre black-eyed pea mousse and topped with a brunoise of roasted beet, lemon zest and green apple Pop Rocks.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2020

So an “efficient, affordable and zero-waste” canapé was made from cucumber, tomato, mould microprotein, dried anchovy and indian salad hydroponically grown in Clapham.

From The Guardian ● May 15, 2019

What better time to share memories and music and, as he puts it, to “lie about ourselves a little”? Except that truth telling, however painful, turns out to be the canapé of choice.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2017

Then she left us again, and Alathea sat stiffly down upon an uncompromising little Louis XV canapé out of my reach.

From Man and Maid by Elinor Glyn

One friend would debut a play, naturally, and everyone would come back to my apartment afterward for cocktails and canapés on the fire escape.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026

“Well, once I saw her, I knew we weren’t here just to eat canapés and see Corvettes. We had to help her.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2026

No wonder Woodward is still writing all these books; the guy’s just trying to enjoy his canapés, and the country’s top military officer waltzes over to share choice content like this.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2024

That's not to say Mr Hunt won't be tempted to offer around a little platter of canapés, a taster of what could come in the spring.

From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2023

Later that afternoon, Barack and I floated around at the palace reception, eating canapés with the other G20 leaders and their spouses.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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