madeleine

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

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.

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

Madeleine

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

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.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for madeleine

Contemporary Examples of 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
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
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
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
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

Historical Examples of madeleine

He had as good a right to go into the Madeleine as the next man.
The Incomplete Amorist
E. Nesbit
It was followed by Madeleine Ferat, which, however, was less fortunate.
A Zola Dictionary
J. G. Patterson
And it was again a daughter, Madeleine, who came at the expiration of those two years.
Fruitfulness
Emile Zola
Neither the marquis nor Madeleine had the courage to raise the cover.
The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2)
Alexandre Dumas pre
Madeleine uttered a loud cry and sank unconscious to the floor.
The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2)
Alexandre Dumas pre

British Dictionary definitions for madeleine

madeleine

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

Word Origin and History for madeleine

Madeleine

fem. proper name, variation of Madeline. The kind of small, rich confection is attested from 1845, said in OED to be named for Madeleine Paulmier, 19c. French pastry cook; any use with a sense of "small thing that evokes powerful nostalgia" is due to Proust (1922).