Christmas pudding
- noun
- /ˈkrɪs·məs ˈpʊd·ɪŋ/
- UK
- In England, there's a tradition of baking a sixpence in a Christmas pudding.
- a traditional Christmas pudding
- a British Christmas pudding
A Christmas tree, a Christmas pudding, a crayon lover pud, a reindeer.
- A Christmas tree, a Christmas pudding, a crayon lover pud, a reindeer.
Examples
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Christmas pudding, no doubt.
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Fourpence for a Christmas pudding!
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There is a coin on top of the Christmas pudding.
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This old lady was buying a turkey dinner for one and a mini Christmas pudding.
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Christmas pudding will do, it keeps.
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And who's going to make the Christmas pudding?
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It's Christmas pudding.
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No, there'll roast chook and things, and Christmas pudding with drippings and hot custard.
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This old lady was buying a turkey dinner for one and a mini Christmas pudding.
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I wanted a recipe for a traditional Christmas pudding, but I wasn't so excited by the prospect of steaming one all day.
Synonyms
A rich steamed dessert with dried fruit and spices, often served at Christmas in Britain
A steamed or boiled pudding made from suet, a hard beef fat, and flour, often sweet
A sweet or savory dish cooked by steaming, often made from flour and eggs
How Rich
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: it denotes a pudding associated with Christmas, so a learner who knows 'Christmas' (the festival) and 'pudding' (a dessert) can infer it refers to a type of dessert served at Christmas. Although cultural specifics (rich, steamed, dried-fruit preparation) are not deducible from the words, the basic referent is transparent and parallels cross-linguistic holiday-food constructions.
Etymology
Christmas pudding comes from Britain long ago when families made a thick mix of dried fruit, spices and fat that they boiled or steamed for the holiday. Because it was the special pudding of Christmas, people simply called it the Christmas pudding, which is why today the phrase means the rich, festive dessert served at Christmas.