curd
Americannoun
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curds
plural
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Often curds. a substance consisting mainly of casein and the like, obtained from milk by coagulation, and used as food or made into cheese.
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any substance resembling this.
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Also called curd cheese. Chiefly Northeastern and Southern U.S. cottage cheese.
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the edible flower heads of cauliflower, broccoli, and similar plants.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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(often plural) a substance formed from the coagulation of milk by acid or rennet, used in making cheese or eaten as a food
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something similar in consistency
verb
Regionalisms
See cottage cheese.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of curd
1325–75; Middle English curden (v.), variant of crudden to crud, congeal; see crowd 1
Vocabulary lists containing curd
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One of his new compositions, he said, came from a time he had remembered living on Bracken Road in Port Talbot and his mother had made him lemon curd sandwiches.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The Reserve is more substantial, with flavors of lemon curd, white flowers and toasted nuts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The cheesemaker's goal is to remove as much whey and moisture from the curd as they need to for their specific recipe.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2024
He then capitalized on this, reinventing those familiar flavors at Ruse with a watermelon sorbet with lime curd and crunchy chocolate pearls.
From Salon ● May 16, 2024
When no more whey dripped from the cloth, Ma emptied the curd into a big pan and salted it, turning and mixing it well.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
So some producers are making more cheese for its byproduct whey, even if that means selling the leftover curds into a weaker market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
This is not a landscape in which someone strains curds with a square of cheesecloth—we are far from the ingredient kitchen.
From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2025
Times columnists Anita Chabria and Mark Z. Barabak were in Milwaukee and laid off the beer and cheese curds so they could offer you their clear-eyed assessment of Day 3 of the Republican National Convention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2024
For $14, you get a pile of fries smothered in white cheddar curds, a sage-heavy brown gravy and a smattering of crispy bacon.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024
When the technicians opened it up, they found cheese curds inside.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
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.
