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to filet

to filet

2 4.6
To cut meat or fish into boneless pieces for cooking
  • verb
  • /fɪˈleɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : filetear
  • Lyndsey, have you ever fileted fish?

So, you know, I could on any one day be picking crab meat or filleting fish or loading a truck with a forklift, whatever.

Examples

  • In culinary school, we learned how to filet fish properly to enhance its flavor.

  • Next, the chef puts down a cutting board on which to filet a salmon.

    Academic text (2004)
  • So, you know, I could on any one day be picking crab meat or filleting fish or loading a truck with a forklift, whatever.

  • Now what happens when the blokes come back from fishing is they filet their fish, throw all the scraps in the water, and, of course, that encourages the croc to hang around.

  • The chef skillfully filets the salmon, removing all the bones before cooking.

  • After catching the trout, he quickly fileted it for dinner.

Compounds

12 7.7

A small, very tender steak cut from the thick end of beef tenderloin

3 2.0

A slice of fish without bones cut lengthwise for cooking

A piece of beef cooked rare, covered in mushroom paste and wrapped in pastry

How Boneless

to debone
1 4.4
to filet
  • Specialized
2 4.6
to trim
95 2.6

Surface Forms

filet infinitive
fileted past
fileted past participle
fileting present participle
filets third person singular

Etymology

Filet as a verb comes from the same French filet ('little thread') and means to cut meat or fish into thin, boneless strips, almost like making small 'threads' of meat. So to filet is to remove bones and make neat pieces ready to cook.