tureen
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of tureen
1700–10; earlier terrene < French terrine earthenware dish, Middle French, feminine of terrin of the earth, earthen < Vulgar Latin *terrīnus, equivalent to Latin terr ( a ) earth + -īnus -ine 1
Explanation
If a waiter brought a big, deep serving dish to your table, removed its lid, and began ladling soup into your bowl, you could confidently call the dish a tureen. A tureen can be made out of earthenware or porcelain or even silver; the most famous tureen — or at least the most expensive — may have been an 18th-century French model that was auctioned off in 1996 for more than ten million dollars.
Vocabulary lists containing tureen
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
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Prisoner B-3087
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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.
A 10-foot canopy shaded guests, while the addition of a hot water tureen allowed people to make coffee, tea and instant cup noodles.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 26, 2023
Servers wheeled in a large silver tureen filled with steaming-hot broth.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2022
This arrived in a big tureen, and gosh, was it good.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2019
The kitchen table was laid with homemade bread, butter, jam, a tureen of dried lamb tallow, and a haunch of fermented lamb.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 11, 2018
“That’s too long. She’s Mary from now on. Heat that soup from last night and put it in the china tureen and, Mary, I want you to carry it carefully.”
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
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.
