lozenge
Americannoun
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a small, flavored tablet made from sugar or syrup, often medicated, originally diamond-shaped.
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Geometry Now Rare. diamond.
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Heraldry.
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a diamond-shaped charge.
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a diamond-shaped shield bearing the arms of a woman.
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noun
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Also called: pastille. troche. med a medicated tablet held in the mouth until it has dissolved
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geometry another name for rhombus
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heraldry a diamond-shaped charge
Etymology
Origin of lozenge
1300–50; Middle English losenge < Middle French, Old French, perhaps < Gaulish *lausa flat stone + -enge < Germanic -inga -ing 3
Explanation
A lozenge is a kind of medicated candy that soothes your sore throat. If you've got a dry cough, you should drink some water and try sucking on a lozenge. You might call a lozenge a "cough drop" or "pastille." Some have ingredients that ease the scratchy throat that causes coughing, and others are meant to relieve the discomfort of a sore throat. The word lozenge can also refer to a diamond shape. The tile on your bathroom floor might be a pattern of blue and white lozenges. Throat lozenges were originally diamond-shaped, hence the name.
Vocabulary lists containing lozenge
The Chocolate Touch
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Novel Study: Fahrenheit 451, Part I
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"The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket," Vocabulary from the short story
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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.
It is an enormous yellow lozenge moored to the seafloor with two giant turbines attached on what look like great wings.
From BBC • Oct. 21, 2023
The candy heart was born during the lozenge craze of the mid-1800s, when apothecaries sold medicated candies to soothe sore throats and suppress coughs.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 7, 2023
If you've ever eaten a York Peppermint Pattie or sucked on a menthol lozenge, you feel that rush of what seems like cool air sweeping down your nose and your throat.
From Salon • Oct. 29, 2021
Portman noted that the way she exaggeratedly works a lozenge in her mouth during a contentious press interview was inspired by Madonna in her tour documentary “Madonna: Truth or Dare.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 7, 2018
And when I stand to fill up my water bottle and pop a lozenge and check that my audition music hasn’t wrinkled, I break into tears too.
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
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.
