lard
Americannoun
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lards
plural
verb (used with object)
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lards,
present (3rd person singular)
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larded,
past participle, past
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larding
present participle
-
to apply lard or grease to.
-
to prepare or enrich (lean meat, chicken, etc.) with pork or fat, especially with lardons.
-
to supplement or enrich with something for improvement or ornamentation.
a literary work larded with mythological allusions.
noun
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the rendered fat from a pig, esp from the abdomen, used in cooking
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informal excess fat on a person's body
verb
-
to prepare (lean meat, poultry, etc) by inserting small strips of bacon or fat before cooking
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to cover or smear (foods) with lard
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to add extra material to (speech or writing); embellish
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
lardsimple
-
lardssimple
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have lardedperfect
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has lardedperfect
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am lardingprogressive
-
are lardingprogressive
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is lardingprogressive
-
have been lardingperfect progressive
-
has been lardingperfect progressive
Past
-
lardedsimple
-
had lardedperfect
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was lardingprogressive
-
were lardingprogressive
-
had been lardingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lard
1300–50; Middle English (v.), late Middle English (noun) < Middle French larder (v.), lard (noun) < Latin lār ( i ) dum bacon fat; akin to Greek lārīnós fat (adj.)
Explanation
Lard is rendered animal fat that's used for cooking. Although many bakers use butter or vegetable shortening in their pie crust, others swear by the rich flavor of lard. Lard is a white fat that comes from pigs. In some places, it's not uncommon to spread lard on bread instead of butter, and many cooks appreciate its ability to get extremely hot without burning and its savory flavor. Lard is also commonly used as a verb to mean "fill with unnecessary details," the way a student might lard an essay with impressive vocabulary words to disguise the fact that it was hastily written right before class.
Vocabulary lists containing lard
Save Me a Seat
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A Culinary Vocabulary Sampler
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The Odyssey
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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:
In many cases, those diets derived 60% of calories from lard, which does not accurately reflect typical human eating habits and makes it difficult to determine the effects of individual fatty acids.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 2, 2026
"We just put lard on them and it takes off. I'm laughing, but it's how it is," he told AFP during a visit of the company factory.
From Barron's ● Feb. 16, 2026
Those who lived in the countryside were more likely to cherish memories of lard than olive oil; having a pig to slaughter could get a struggling family through the year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
For some, a pie’s identity lies in the crust: flaky and tender, pressed lovingly into the pan with fingertips or rolled smooth with butter, oil or lard.
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2025
I double-check Ma’s list: extra flour, extra jerky, dried apples, rice, crackers… extra coffee, cornmeal, bacon, and beans… extra kerosene, extra lard, sugar, salt, and vinegar.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
He lards on the praise for the president’s political skills.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 12, 2018
Schumer thus sticks close to the essence of the report, when he says the pipeline would create “several thousand temporary construction jobs,” though he lards it on a bit by adding “only 35 permanent jobs.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 6, 2015
He lards this book with keen, bittersweet observations about the publishing world, details that become a big, poignant part of its appeal.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2014
It lards on production details and tosses in a lead whose delivery feels more bro than bard.
From Time ● Nov. 29, 2
Colossians, ii, 9; “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” lards the lean earth.
From Hazlitt on English Literature An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature by Jacob Zeitlin
My college applications—each in its bulky envelope, larded with paper clips, staples and whiteout—had to be postmarked by noon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
In 1988, Icahn took TWA private, in a deal that brought him more than $400 million in profit but left the airline larded with $540 million in new debt, bringing its total to $4 billion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
Until the “useless” headline sparked outrage, nobody at MSN seemed to realize that their news page was larded with gobbledygook.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 28, 2023
The potato salad redeemed the meal, echoing my grandmother’s recipe: a tower of well-cooked potato cubes, larded with pieces of dill pickles, boiled egg and tender carrots, bound together in a rich mayonnaise dressing.
From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2023
He spoke a Spanish that was larded with sailor slang.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
But Mr. Youngkin’s idea of readying sites is probably better, from a market point of view, than larding up companies with public money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
The safety board completed its investigation without saying what caused the hard larding.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2022
The Times, ever devoted to its vision of L.A.’s plummy future, wrote pages and pages about real estate, larding its stories with words like “stately mansion” and “palatial dwelling.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2022
Applicants can game the process by larding their résumés with terms the machines are likely to be looking for.
From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2018
And so I gave my approval to his first run for office, larding it with a bit of wifely caution.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
