blancmange
Americannoun
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a sweet pudding prepared with almond milk and gelatin and flavored with rum or kirsch.
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a sweet, white pudding made with milk and cornstarch and flavored with vanilla.
noun
Etymology
Origin of blancmange
1350–1400; apocopated variant of Middle English blancmanger < Middle French: literally, white eating. See blank, manger
Explanation
Blancmange is a dessert made of milk, sugar, and sometimes almonds. It’s usually served cold in a mold. It’s kind of like vanilla pudding. For some reason, it’s often pink. This French term means "white food," and that's a very good description of blancmange. This dessert is like a pudding made from milk and cornstarch, and although it's sometimes pink, it's usually white and somewhat bland. However, there are various ways of livening it up. Sometimes spices or even shredded chicken is added. Occasionally, this word has been a synonym for nonsense, as in, "That's a load of blancmange!"
Vocabulary lists containing blancmange
Pie Chart: Dessert Words
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Boy: Tales of Childhood
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Matilda
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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.
Every time I do, I think of Jo charging into that doomed kitchen with “perfect faith in her own powers” and emerging with blackened bread and lumpy blancmange.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026
With 19 minutes left, he went into turbo charge and Gvardiol, one of the costliest and most composed defenders in English football, suddenly had the steadiness of a blancmange.
From BBC • Nov. 15, 2024
When it was over, I found myself wishing to do good deeds, wanting to taste blancmange, yearning for a new silk dress and a trip to Europe — and full of opinions.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 19, 2019
It even included recipes for foreign dishes, such as blancmange.
From The New Yorker • Apr. 22, 2019
Ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the Ravenclaw table.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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.
