Definition of "mince"

mince

/mɪns/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural minces
1. (uncountable) Finely chopped meat; minced meat.
2. (uncountable) Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.
3. (countable) An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
  Quotations
  A wiry little girl in a starched, lemon-colored party dress, she sassed along with a grownup mince, one hand on her hip, the other supporting a spinsterish umbrella.
  1949, Truman Capote, “Children on their Birthdays”, in A Tree of Night and Other Stories‎, page 36
  She was just the same; she had a light way of walking and she always wore flat heels so she didn't have that mince like most girls.
  1963, John Fowles, The Collector‎, page 15
  His skin was china pale, he walked with a slight mince, and his silver mustache was always trimmed sharp; it was his custom to send a bouquet of pink carnations to the wives of men with whom he dined.
  2010, Tom Zoellner, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World
4. (countable) An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
  Quotations
  A very moderate degree of accomplishment in this direction would make an end of stage smart speech, which, like the got-up Oxford mince and drawl of a foolish curate, is the mark of a snob.
  1896, George Bernard Shaw, “Madame Sans-Gene”, in London Saturday Review
  And, further, who has not heard what someone has christened the "Oxford" mince, where every consonant is mispronounced and every vowel gets a wrong value?
  1928, R. M. Pope, The Education Outlook, volume 80, page 285
  [...] a smiling man, portly and impressive, coming toward them with a dignified mince in his walk.
  2008, Opie Read, The Colossus, page 95
5. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, chiefly in the plural) An eye (from mince pie).
  Quotations
  Lancashire is a bit nazi about speed and the M6 in that area can be either clear or infested with vans and their helicopter. On the good side the vans tend to be on well sighted bridges so just keep the old minces peeled.
  2009 May 21, planetdave, “Speed traps”, in PistonHeads‎, retrieved 2017-03-22
6. (UK, slang, uncountable) Something worthless; rubbish.
verb
third-person singular simple present minces, present participle mincing, simple past and past participle minced
1. (transitive) To make less; to make small.
2. (transitive) To lessen; to diminish; to diminish in speaking; to speak of lightly or slightingly; to minimise.
3. (transitive, rare) To effect mincingly.
4. (transitive, cooking) To cut into very small pieces; to chop finely.
5. (archaic, transitive, figuratively) To suppress or weaken the force of.
  Quotations
  Siren, now mince the sin, / And mollify damnation with a phrase.
  1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery
6. To say or utter vaguely (not directly or frankly).
  Quotations
  I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say — "I love you."
  1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
  Despite prolonged exposure to harsh conditions, medics say Nora Tallis returned to the Nexus in stable condition. In a statement to HNS, Tallis did not mince words. "Never send me to that hellhole again."
  2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: ELAADEN (HNS) - Nora Tallis Found Alive
7. (transitive) To affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.
  Quotations
  In some districts of England ll is sounded like w, thus bowd (booud) for BOLD, bw (buu) for BULL, caw (kau) for CALL. But this pronunciation is merely a provincialism, and not to be imitated unless you wish to mince like these blunderers.
  1869, Alexander J. Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, with special reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer, part 1, page 194
  One may hear some speakers in Oxford mince brother into brover (brëvë); Bath into Baf; both into bof.
  1905, George Henderson, The Gaelic Dialects, IV, in the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, published by Kuno Meyer and L. Chr. Stern, volume 5, page 98
  "The preacher said it was sympathetic," she minced the word, remembering Mr. Larsen's manner.
  1915, Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark
8. (intransitive) To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner.
  Quotations
  At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.
  1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg
  The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they go.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Isaiah 3:16
  I'll […] turn two mincing steps into a manly stride.
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iv], page 177, column 1
9. (intransitive) To act or talk with affected nicety; to affect delicacy in manner.

Definition of "mince"

mince

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verb

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