madeleine

[ mad-l-in, mad-l-eyn; French maduh-len ]

/ ˈmæd l ɪn, ˌmæd lˈeɪn; French madəˈlɛn /

noun, plural mad·e·leines [mad-l-inz, mad-l-eynz; French maduh-len] /ˈmæd l ɪnz, ˌmæd lˈeɪnz; French madəˈlɛn/. French Cookery.

a small shell-shaped cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in a mold.

something that triggers memories or nostalgia: in allusion to a nostalgic passage in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

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Origin of madeleine

1835–45; < French, earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the female given name; the attribution of the recipe to an 18th-century cook named Madeleine Pau(l)mier is unsubstantiated

Words nearby madeleine

madeira, madeira cake, madeira embroidery, madeira topaz, madeira vine, madeleine, madelung's deformity, madelung's disease, mademoiselle, madera, maderno

Definition for madeleine (2 of 2)

Madeleine

[ mad-l-in, -lahyn; French maduh-len ]

/ ˈmæd l ɪn, -ˌlaɪn; French madəˈlɛn /

noun

a female given name, form of Magdalene.

Also Mad·e·laine, Mad·e·lene

[mad-l-in] /ˈmæd l ɪn/, Mad·e·line, Mad·e·lyn.

Example sentences from the Web for madeleine

Early in her career, she and designer Madeleine Vionnet sued a woman in Paris for copying some 20,000 sketches of their designs.
The Big Business of Fashion Counterfeits|Lizzie Crocker|December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Normally I might look to Samantha Power or Madeleine Albright or Hillary Clinton for foreign policy wisdom.
What Iran Can Learn From Gwyneth Paltrow|Nina Ansary|October 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Despite the fact that her husband had left France four years earlier, Madeleine had recently given birth to a healthy baby boy.
The Strange Science Behind Virgin Births|Candida Moss|January 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Several people at the resort had seen a man carrying a small bundled child on the night Madeleine disappeared.
Investigation Into Madeleine McCann Disappearance Reopened in Portugal|Barbie Latza Nadeau|October 24, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Key to the new timeline is a more precise window in which Madeleine most likely disappeared.
Did This Man Abduct Madeleine McCann?|Barbie Latza Nadeau|October 14, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Madeleine came to inform her young mistress, and she was on the point of going to her father, when the bell rang again.
Monsieur Cherami|Charles Paul de Kock
Within a few feet of him at one corner of the square of standing people stood the girl he had known in Jersey, Madeleine Durand.
The Ball and The Cross|G.K. Chesterton
I engage Madeleine for the first quadrille, and Bertha for the first waltz.
Fairy Fingers|Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
It was in the Madeleine that some of the Communards were massacred in 1871.
The Churches of Paris|S. Sophia Beale
George even dined there by himself continually, Madeleine saying she was tired, and preferring to remain at home.
The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 6|Guy de Maupassant

British Dictionary definitions for madeleine

madeleine

/ (ˈmædəlɪn, -ˌleɪn) /

noun

a small fancy sponge cake

Word Origin for madeleine

C19: perhaps after Madeleine Paulmier, French pastry cook

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012