French dressing
1
1.9
- noun
- /frɛntʃ ˈdrɛsɪŋ/
:
vinagreta
- I like to drizzle French dressing over my mixed green salad for added flavor.
- French dressing on her salad
Examples
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Lately, I'm all about the Honey French dressing.
Blog text (32) -
Just bring him an iceberg lettuce and a mealy tomato wedge smothered with French dressing.
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For a tasty side dish, serve your coleslaw with a generous amount of French dressing.
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To make the salad more delicious, toss it with homemade French dressing containing mustard and garlic.
Synonyms
28
3.3
A salad dressing made from oil and vinegar, often with mustard or garlic
13
1.0
A cold sauce like oil and vinegar or ranch that adds flavor to fresh vegetables
8
1.0
A sauce like vinaigrette or a creamy one used on salads
A cold dressing of oil and vinegar with mustard and garlic
How Tangy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositional: 'French' signals a national or stylistic modifier and 'dressing' denotes a salad sauce, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it is a kind of salad dressing. Although the exact ingredients (oil, vinegar, mustard) are not deducible from the words alone, the general meaning as a style/type of dressing is predictable and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
French dressing probably comes from old cooks who called a simple sauce of oil and vinegar French because it was made in the style they linked to France. So the name came to mean 'a salad dressing', and it stayed even when people added mustard or other flavors.