flour

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

Powder obtained by grinding or milling cereal grains, especially wheat, or other foodstuffs such as soybeans and potatoes, and used to bake bread, cakes, and pastry.
The food made by grinding and bolting cleaned wheat (not durum or red durum) until it meets specified levels of fineness, dryness, and freedom from bran and germ, also containing any of certain enzymes, ascorbic acid, and certain bleaching agents.
Powder of other material.
Obsolete form of flower.

verb

To apply flour to something; to cover with flour.
To reduce to flour.
To break up into fine globules of mercury in the amalgamation process.

Pronunciation

/ˈflaʊ̯.əː/ [ˈflaʊ̯.əː] /ˈflæʊ̯.əː/ [ˈflæʊ̯.əː] /ˈflaː.əː/ [ˈflaː.əː] /ˈflaʊ̯.ɚ/ [ˈflaʊ̯.ɚ] ~ [ˈflaʊ̯.ɹ̩] en-us-flour.ogg /ˈflæʊ̯.ɚ/ [ˈflæʊ̯.ɚ] ~ [ˈflæʊ̯.ɹ̩] /ˈflaː.ɚ/ [ˈflaː.ɚ] ~ [ˈflaː.ɹ̩] /flaː(r)/ /ˈflɑ/ [ˈflɑ] /ˈflɐɹ/ [ˈflɐɹ] /ˈflɑɹ/ [ˈflɑɹ]

Word forms

flour flours flower flouring floured

Etymology

Spelled (until about 1830) and meaning flower in the sense of flour being the "finest portion of ground grain" (compare French fleur de farine, fine fleur). Doublet of fleur, flor, and flower. Partially displaced native meal. The U.S. standard of identity comes from 21CFR137.105.

Synonyms

Related words

bran farina meal smeddum wheatmeal

Derived words

all-purpose flour beanflour beflour bread flour cold flour cornflour cricket flour flour beetle flour corn flour gold flourless flourlike flourman flourmill flour mill flour mite flour-monger flour moth flour paste floursack flour treatment agent glacial flour graham flour mesquite flour moth flour national flour nonflour pastry flour pea flour rice flour rock flour rye flour second flour self-raising flour self-rising flour strong flour wood flour reflour unfloured

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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