doughnut

or do·nut

[doh-nuh t, -nuht]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR doughnut ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a small cake of sweetened or, sometimes, unsweetened dough fried in deep fat, typically shaped like a ring or, when prepared with a filling, a ball.

anything shaped like a thick ring; an annular object; toroid.

Origin of doughnut

First recorded in 1795–1805; dough + nut

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for doughnut

bun, pastry, Danish, cruller, sinker, dunker

Examples from the Web for doughnut

Contemporary Examples of doughnut

The other is a Jersey bruiser, with a (much-discussed) physique reminiscent of Tony Soprano after a doughnut bender.
Squishes, Step Aside: Ted Cruz and Chris Christie’s Old-School Manliness
Michelle Cottle
May 13, 2013
“Pretty good thing,” says Lynch, biting into his doughnut, totally undisturbed.
David Lynch Discusses Transcendental Meditation in Los Angeles
Sean Macaulay
April 7, 2013
Afterwards, in the green room, Lynch sits on a sofa and munches on a doughnut.
David Lynch Discusses Transcendental Meditation in Los Angeles
Sean Macaulay
April 7, 2013
The Daily Pic: The crème brûlée "bismarck" from the Doughnut Plant is a great aesthetic creation.
Mona Lisa of the Coffee Shop
Blake Gopnik
February 5, 2013
Lauren Conrad has become synonymous with the doughnut bun, an obsession with pearls, peachy glossed lips, and a milky manicure.
From ‘The Hills’ to Over the Hill: Lauren Conrad’s Premature Aging
Anna Klassen
September 24, 2012

Historical Examples of doughnut

Kind of like takin' away the doughnut and leavin' nothin' but the hole.
Thankful's Inheritance
Joseph C. Lincoln
And I bet that girl never cooked a doughnut in her life or ever will.
The Rise of Roscoe Paine
Joseph C. Lincoln
By and by I thought of my doughnut, and inquired who was hungry.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863
Various
"The fellow who wins gets the hole in the doughnut," returned Dave, gaily.
Dave Porter At Bear Camp
Edward Stratemeyer
"He'd charge for the hole in the doughnut," came from his twin, with a grin.
The Rover Boys on a Hunt
Arthur M. Winfield (Edward Stratemeyer)

British Dictionary definitions for doughnut

doughnut

esp US donut

noun

a small cake of sweetened dough, often ring-shaped or spherical with a jam or cream filling, cooked in hot fat

anything shaped like a ring, such as the reaction vessel of a thermonuclear reactor

verb -nuts, -nutting or -nutted

(tr) informal (of Members of Parliament) to surround (a speaker) during the televising of Parliament to give the impression that the chamber is crowded or the speaker is well supported

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for doughnut

1809, American English, from dough + nut (n.), probably on the notion of being a small round lump (the holes came later, first mentioned c.1861). First recorded by Washington Irving, who described them as "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks." Earlier name for it was dough-boy (1680s). Bartlett (1848) meanwhile lists doughnuts and crullers among the types of olycokes, a word he derives from Dutch olikoek, literally "oil-cake," to indicate a cake fried in lard.

The ladies of Augusta, Maine, set in operation and carried out a novel idea, namely, the distribution of over fifty bushels of doughnuts to the Third volunteer regiment of that State. A procession of ladies, headed by music, passed between double lines of troops, who presented arms, and were afterwards drawn up in hollow square to receive from tender and gracious hands the welcome doughnation. [Frazar Kirkland, "Anecdotes of the Rebellion," 1866]

Meaning "a driving in tight circles" is U.S. slang, 1981. Cf. also donut.