different between lacerate vs mince

English

Etymology

From Middle English laceraten, from Latin lacer?tus, past participle of lacer?.

Pronunciation

• (verb): IPA^(key): /?læ.s?.ejt/
• (verb): Hyphenation: lac?er?ate
• (adjective): IPA^(key): /?læ.s?.?t/

Verb

lacerate (third-person singular simple present lacerates, present participle lacerating, simple past and past participle lacerated)

1. (transitive) To tear, rip or wound.
2. (transitive) To defeat thoroughly; to thrash.

Translations

Adjective

lacerate (not comparable)

1. (botany) Jagged, as if torn or lacerated.

   The bract at the base is dry and papery, often lacerate near its apex.

Italian

Verb

lacerate

1. second-person plural present indicative of lacerare
2. second-person plural imperative of lacerare
3. feminine plural of lacerato

Latin

Participle

lacer?te

1. vocative masculine singular of lacer?tus

English

Alternative forms

• minse (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian, ?eminsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-Germanic *minnis?n? (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut into small pieces”), from mince (“slender, slight, puny”), from Frankish *minsto, *minnisto, superlative of *min, *minn (“small, less”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”); both from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Old Saxon mins?n (“to make less, make smaller”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (minznan, “to become less, diminish”), Swedish minska (“to reduce, lessen”), Gothic ???????????????? (mins, “slender, slight”). More at min.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?ns/
• Rhymes: -?ns
• Homophone: mints

Noun

mince (countable and uncountable, plural minces)

1. (uncountable) Finely chopped meat.

   Mince tastes really good fried in a pan with some chopped onion and tomato.

2. (uncountable) Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.

   During Christmas time my dad loves to eat mince pies.

3. (countable) An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
   • 2010, Tom Zoellner, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World:

     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.

4. (countable) An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
   • 1928, R. M. Pope, in The Education Outlook, volume 80, page 285:

     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?

   • 2008, Opie Read, The Colossus, page 95:

     [...] a smiling man, portly and impressive, coming toward them with a dignified mince in his walk.

5. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, chiefly in the plural) An eye (from mince pie).

Quotations

• 1849, Herman Melville, Mardi, and a Voyage Thither:

  Not, — let me hurry to say, — that I put hand in tar bucket with a squeamish air, or ascended the rigging with a Chesterfieldian mince.

Translations

Verb

mince (third-person singular simple present minces, present participle mincing, simple past and past participle minced)

1. (transitive) To make less; make small.
2. (transitive) To lessen; diminish; to diminish in speaking; speak of lightly or slightingly; minimise.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:diminish

3. (transitive, rare) To effect mincingly.
4. (transitive, cooking) To cut into very small pieces; to chop fine.

5. (archaic, transitive, figuratively) To suppress or weaken the force of

   Synonyms: extenuate, palliate, weaken

   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery

     Siren, now mince the sin, / And mollify damnation with a phrase.

6. To say or utter vaguely, not directly or frankly

7. (transitive) To affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.
   • 1869, Alexander J. Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, with special reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer, part 1, page 194:

     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.

   • 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:

     One may hear some speakers in Oxford mince brother into brover (brëvë); Bath into Baf; both into bof.
8. (intransitive) To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner.

   • 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.

   • 1769, King James Bible, Isaiah 3:16

     The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they go.
9. (intransitive) To act or talk with affected nicety; to affect delicacy in manner.

Usage notes

Current usage in the sense of “say or utter vaguely” is mostly limited to the phrase “mince words”; e.g., “I won't mince words with you”.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• mince in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from German Münze.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?nt?s?/
• Rhymes: -?nts?

Noun

mince f

1. coin

   Synonyms: peníz, moneta

   Hyponyms: m??ák, st?íbr?ák, zla?ák

Declension

Related terms

Further reading

• mince in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• mince in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

French

Etymology

Derived from the verb mincer, from Old French mincier, from Vulgar Latin *min?ti?re (cf. also menuiser), from Latin min?tia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??s/

Adjective

mince (plural minces)

1. thin, slim, slender

Derived terms

• amincir
• minceur
• mincir

Interjection

mince

1. drat!, darn!
2. wow!, blimey!

Further reading

• “mince” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Irish

Noun

mince f

1. genitive singular of minc (“mink”)

Mutation

Slovak

Noun

mince

1. inflection of minca:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative plural