a black vinifera grape grown for table use.
the vine itself.
(lowercase) a cucumber pickle; gherkin.
1965–70; < French: literally, little horn, equivalent to corne horn + -ichon diminutive suffix
A cornichon is a tart, crunchy little pickle. You can eat cornichons on their own, or chop them up and add them to your tuna or egg salad. In the U.K., people call these tiny pickles gherkins, but in France and the U.S., they're cornichons. Traditionally, cornichons are very small cucumbers pickled in vinegar and flavored with tarragon. They're tart, but much less sour and salty than dill pickles. The French cornichon literally means "little horn," from the Latin cornu, "animal horn."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her friends, Mrs. M'cabe, Mrs. Alfred Stevens, Madame Cornichon, and Miss Jerkins, indignantly declare that they will eat their respective heads off if she is a day younger than 46.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 by Various
Cornichon made complaints about the 'Abbe Huff,' as he called him.
From Barry Lyndon by Thackeray, William Makepeace
Cornichon lives in room number thirty-six on the third floor of a furnished lodging house in the street du Petit Lion.
From A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France by Duthie, William
My friend Cornichon, who is a goldsmith, works as long as a painter or a smith.
From A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France by Duthie, William
Cornichon and Friponnet dine in the street Chabannais; have soup at a penny a portion, small plates of p. 144meat at twopence each, dessert at a penny, and halfpenny slips of bread.
From A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France by Duthie, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
