a hard, smooth-textured cheese, made usually from the whole milk of cows and varying in color from white to deep yellow and in flavor from mild to sharp as it ages.
Origin of cheddar
First recorded in 1655–65; named after Cheddar, village in Somersetshire, England, where it was first made
(sometimes not capital)any of several types of smooth hard yellow or whitish cheese
a village in SW England, in N Somerset: situated near Cheddar Gorge, a pass through the Mendip Hills renowned for its stalactitic caverns and rare limestone flora. Pop: 4796 (2001)
type of cheese, 1660s (but the cheese presumably was made long before that), from Cheddar, village in Somerset, England, where it originally was made, from Old English Ceodre (c.880), probably from ceodor "ravine" (there is a gorge nearby).
