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parfait

[pahr-fey]
noun
  1. a dessert of ice cream and fruit or ice cream and syrup in alternate layers, often topped with whipped cream and served in a tall, narrow, short-stemmed glass.
  2. any frozen dessert in which fruit, nuts, etc., have been folded into whipped cream or egg custard.
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Origin of parfait

1890–95; < French: literally, perfect < Latin perfectus. See perfect
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for parfait

Historical Examples

  • But I mean to wade right through from hors-d'œuvres to parfait.

    Torchy and Vee

    Sewell Ford

  • Line the mold with an ice and fill the center with a mousse or a parfait.

    Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4

    Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

  • I refused the parfait aux frais and the savoury in my eagerness for the end of the meal.

    The King of Schnorrers

    Israel Zangwill

  • I don't believe that we could have been any jollier had there been ten courses, winding up with a parfait au caf and a demi-tasse.

  • Besides his memoirs he wrote a book called the Parfait Capitaine, and some others.

British Dictionary definitions for parfait

parfait

noun
  1. a rich frozen dessert made from eggs and cream with ice cream, fruit, etc
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Word Origin

from French: perfect
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 parfait

n.

kind of frozen dessert, 1894, French, literally "perfect" (see perfect (adj.)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper