flour

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A fine powder made by grinding wheat or other grain, used to make bread, cakes, and pastry.

   She mixed flour, eggs, and milk to make the cake.

2. 2
   verb

   To cover or dust something with flour.

   Flour the fish lightly before frying it.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Flour is historically the same word as flower, whose Middle English spelling was flour. The figurative sense “flower” or “best part” was applied to the finest ground wheat, then broadened to the modern term for ground grain; the spelling flour became restricted to this sense by the 17th century.

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.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary