macaroni
Americannoun
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small, tubular pasta prepared from wheat flour.
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an English dandy of the 18th century who affected Continental mannerisms, clothes, etc.
noun
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pasta tubes made from wheat flour
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(in 18th-century Britain) a dandy who affected foreign manners and style
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of macaroni
1590–1600; earlier maccaroni < dialectal Italian, plural of maccarone ( Italian maccherone ). See macaroon
Explanation
Macaroni is a short, skinny, tube-shaped pasta. Many kids — and adults — would name "macaroni and cheese" as one of their favorite foods. At some Italian restaurants, you can order macaroni as a side dish, and it's easy to cook at home with tomato sauce or butter and cheese. Macaroni and cheese can be cooked on the stove or baked in the oven with a crunchy breadcrumb topping. Macaroni began to have the second meaning of "fop" or "dandy" around 1780, named for the well-traveled youths who ate what was considered fancy and exotic at the time — macaroni.
Vocabulary lists containing macaroni
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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:
The agreement makes Kraft Heinz the exclusive provider of some condiments, macaroni and cheese and cream cheese at Disney’s North American parks and resorts, and on the Disney Cruise Line.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
I wanted something that still felt unmistakably like the macaroni salad you’d pile onto a paper plate at a backyard cookout, just with a little more lift.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026
The British Indian Army, when stationed in Cairo during World War II, is also said to have introduced khichuri to Egypt, ultimately creating the country’s national dish koshari, made with rice, lentils and macaroni.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
Two weeks later, after returning from a Mediterranean cruise, they celebrated Ben's 18th birthday with his favourite meal - macaroni cheese and a cup of tea.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
I watched her eat her macaroni and cheese and fried chicken and green beans and coconut cake while I pushed my food around my plate between tiny bites.
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
Do not look at either biscuits or macaronies; you have fruits of all kinds, confitures and much else that you may safely indulge in, according to my principles.
From The Physiology of Taste by Robinson, Fayette
I would not give one for all the macaronies in England, with their powder and their snuff-boxes.
From Love and Life An Old Story in Eighteenth Century Costume by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
The beaux distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replenishing this pot from a huge copper tea-kettle, which would have made the pigmy macaronies of these degenerate days sweat merely to look at it.
From Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete by Irving, Washington
The beaux distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replenishing this pot from a huge copper tea-kettle which would have made the pigmy macaronies of these degenerate days sweat merely to look at it.
From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 by Sylvester, Charles Herbert
At times, all should take as much soup, potage, fish, etc., and also meat cooked with rice and macaronies, pastry, creams, etc.
From The Physiology of Taste by Robinson, Fayette
Scientists are watching closely now to see how bird flu interacts with the different penguin species, which on South Georgia include kings, gentoos, macaronis and chinstraps.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2024
Chile is home to four kinds, but the macaronis live offshore, outside the tourist cone.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2016
The rockies and macaronis revisit the same colony and breeding site every year.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2016
Sixty-nine penguins — gentoos, macaronis and rockhoppers — have marched over to their new home, which opens to the public on Monday.
From US News ● Apr. 13, 2016
“Young macaronis are oft known to give girls hundreds of pounds and get nothing in return.”
From Janice Meredith by Ford, Paul Leicester
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.
