étouffée
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of étouffée
< Louisiana French; French (à l')étouffée cooked in a closed vessel with little liquid, braised; noun use of feminine past participle of étouffer literally, to smother, suffocate, Old French estofer, apparently identical with estofer to stuff
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:
They held regular dinner parties for friends, colleagues and students, and Morgan was renowned for her cooking, with a repertoire that included jambalaya, French beef stew, fried chicken and shrimp étouffée.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
“The étouffée wasn’t ready when we were first there, and she had to get back to try it.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 6, 2023
In New Orleans, I’ve had crawfish étouffée and crab rangoon nachos with fried wontons as chips.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 8, 2022
Harold & Belle’s is celebrating 50 years this Saturday with a block party and crawfish boil that includes all-you-can-eat gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée and fried catfish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2019
Nearly two dozen food vendors offered jambalaya, étouffée and other specialties.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2019
Although gumbos and étouffées define much of the cooking in southern Louisiana, Mosca’s is a stalwart of another, though less celebrated, vein of the New Orleans culinary canon that came from transplanted southern Italian immigrants.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2011
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.
