having the aroma or fragrance of rose water.
affectedly delicate, nice, or fine; sentimental.
a Victorian novelist with a genteel, rose-water style.
scented water used as a perfume and in cooking, made by the distillation of rose petals or by impregnation with oil of roses
( as modifier )
rose-water scent
(modifier) elegant or delicate, esp excessively so
First recorded in 1350–1400
First recorded in 1655–65
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The dough is then rolled into small balls, fried and soaked immediately in a warm syrup made from saffron threads and rose water.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2025
So Mr Jain decided to turn his roses into rose water and rose oil.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2023
Consider some of the dishes on the 2022 menu: carrot kebab with grapefruit; barley with pork broth and rose water; and beef tongue with seaweed crystal.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2023
“The saffron, the rose water, those flavors are very home for me,” Petrossian says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
He sipped some rose water before asking, "You know the tale of how I found the flower of immortality in a cave at the bottom of the endless ocean?"
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Take a third of a pound of sugar, dissolve it with half an ounce of rose-water on a quiet fire, then take it up.
From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2011
Roses were made into rose-water and also into rose conserve, a kind of sweetmeat of rose-petals, sugar and spice packed in little jars.
From In the Days of the Guild by Lamprey, Louise
It is still revolutionary, but has resolved that henceforth revolutions shall be made with rose-water, and omelettes without breaking of....
From Satires And Profanities by Foote, G. W. (George William)
In the middle of the room played a fountain of rose-water, and at the windows hung pink silk curtains, which were drawn when the creatures went to sleep.
From The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book by Harrison, Constance Cary
The Damask Rose was the only one ever used in careful families and by careful housekeepers for making rose-water.
From Old-Time Gardens Newly Set Forth by Earle, Alice Morse
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.
