Definition of "fillet"

fillet

/ˈfɪl.ɪt/

noun
plural fillets
1. (now rare) A headband; a ribbon or other band used to tie the hair up, or keep a headdress in place, or for decoration.
  Quotations
  In secret shadow, farre from all mens sight: From her faire head her fillet she undight, And laid her stole aside.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  A fillet binds her hair.
  1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717
  "Know thy own worth, and reverence the lyre," is a line that should be as a fillet bound round the brow—a philactory embroidered on the garments of every son and daughter of Adam distinguished by the possession of that sacred gift, which, whether used or abused, applauded in itself or derided in its possessor, is the highest and the most inalienable distinction humanity ever has or ever can be gifted with, whether bestowed on the highest or the humblest being, in the great mass to which we all belong.
  1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, page 252
  She was talking of Raymond Duncan, a walking absurdity who dressed in an ancient handwoven Greek costume and wore his hair in long braids reaching to his waist, adding, on ceremonial occasions, a fillet of bay-leaves.
  1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, Mew York, published 2007, page 42
2. A thin strip of any material, in various technical uses.
3. (construction) A heavy bead of waterproofing compound or sealant material generally installed at the point where vertical and horizontal surfaces meet.
4. (engineering, drafting, CAD) A rounded relief or cut at an edge, especially an inside edge, added for a finished appearance and to break sharp edges.
5. A strip or compact piece of meat or fish from which any bones and skin and feathers have been removed.
  Quotations
  Fillet of a Fenny Snake, / In the Cauldron boyle and bake:
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2
6. (UK) A premium cut of meat, especially beef, taken from below the lower back of the animal, considered to be lean and tender; also called tenderloin.
7. (architecture) A thin featureless moulding/molding used as separation between broader decorative mouldings.
8. (architecture) The space between two flutings in a shaft.
9. (heraldry) An ordinary equal in breadth to one quarter of the chief, to the lowest portion of which it corresponds in position.
10. The thread of a screw.
11. A colored or gilded border.
  Quotations
  Fairer than gods and naked as the moon, The foamy fillets at their ankles strewn Less marble-white than they
  1911, George Sterling, The Swimmers‎
12. The raised moulding around the muzzle of a gun.
13. (woodworking) Any scantling smaller than a batten.
14. (anatomy) A fascia; a band of fibres; applied especially to certain bands of white matter in the brain.
15. The loins of a horse, beginning at the place where the hinder part of the saddle rests.
verb
third-person singular simple present fillets, present participle filleting, simple past and past participle filleted
1. (transitive) To slice, bone or make into fillets.
2. (transitive) To apply, create, or specify a rounded or filled corner to.