First recorded in 1650–60; special use of Mac
Shortened form
Shortened form
< Irish, Scots Gaelic mac son, Old Irish macc; akin to Welsh, Cornish mab
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tossed with olive oil, tomatoes, jalapeño, feta and Parmesan cheese, the expertly al dente Rustichella rigatoni is not your everyday mac ‘n’ cheese dinner.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
The offerings include returning items, such as a smoky burger and chicken sandwich, plus a new side — mac and cheese.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
They arrived alongside Kraft mac and cheese and green beans, the plate a tidy arrangement of beige, orange and green.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2026
They have taught her a few things: how to make mac and cheese, follow American football and wear university merchandise without shame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
Diego talked with his mouth full of mac and cheese.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
“Notably, despite these pricing actions, we have not observed any meaningful changes in Mac or iPad lead times,” Woodring wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Across those games, Mac Allister has played 539 minutes, won 31 duels, 10 tackles, made nine interceptions and applied high pressure 208 times - all numbers which put him high up in the rankings.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Mac Allister's CV already contains a World Cup and a Copa America title, as well as a Premier League title.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
And we expect Apple Watch, iPad and Mac updates, too.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
“I’ll go put on a pot of coffee,” said Mac.
From "Eleven" by Tom Rogers
“Mac Jones, for sure. Yeah, Mac. He’s the best,” Parker said.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
“My life was completely wrapped up in Fleetwood Mac. You can call in sick to a job, a boyfriend, even a husband, but you cannot call in sick to Fleetwood Mac – ever.”
From The Guardian ● Apr. 17, 2019
“It was only made for the Mac. It was less than one percent market share in the U.S. They like to say ‘low single digits.’
From The Verge ● Jun. 13, 2017
"He was the first person to buy a Mac. He was the first person to tell me about the Internet. I had no idea what he was talking about."
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2015
“He fought dirty, Mac. So how ’bout shuttin’ up,” Red said.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Apple tends to hold a second Mac- or iPad-focused event in the fall roughly every other year.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2018
Simply put: If your school requires any Mac- or Windows-only apps, then you can’t use an iPad in place of an actual laptop.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2018
Kathlene Mac- Donell is rather better as the cabaret performer.
From Time Magazine Archive
He went farther in ten days than did Britisher Mac- Laren, covering 5,468 miles in 45 hours and 20 minutes of actual flying time.
From Time Magazine Archive
While we were taking Bougainville, General Mac- Arthur’s forces would be landing on the western end of New Britain Island at Cape Gloucester to establish a new airfield there, too.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
The U.S. company—home to brands such as MAC, Smashbox and Jo Malone—has been undergoing a business turnaround under new leadership.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
And should the RedHawks stumble in the MAC tournament, a decision to exclude them with a single defeat would be unheard of.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
The athletic department is paying $23 million over five years to move its football team into the MAC and paying travel costs for league opponents to play in Sacramento.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
He said that its “consumer-facing” investments included opening new retail locations for its luxury fragrance brands while closing some of its MAC and Origins locations.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 5, 2026
The "MAC" stood for Project MAC, the DARPA-funded research project that gave birth to the AI Lab and the Laboratory for Computer Science.
From Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Williams, Sam
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.
