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Glite Dictionary
🍰 A sponge cake 🥒 Okra vegetable
ladyfinger

ladyfinger

1 3.9
A small, light cake shaped like a finger used in desserts like tiramisu
  • noun
  • /ˈleɪdiˌfɪŋɡər/
translation icon : bizcocho
  • ladyfinger cookies
  • coffee-soaked ladyfingers
  • soaked ladyfingers

I thought they were little ladyfingers because.

Examples

  • Kids lighting off a string of firecrackers or ladyfingers; most likely it was July.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • She no longer waited for me with ladyfinger cookies at teatime, nor did she want to go to the theater or the movies in the evening, not even when we were given tickets.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • For the dessert, we layered mascarpone and espresso in between the ladyfingers.

  • She carefully arranged the ladyfingers in the trifle dish before adding the fruit.

  • To make tiramisu, start by dipping the ladyfingers in coffee.

Surface Forms

ladyfinger singular
ladyfingers plural

Morphology

ladyfinger = lady + finger (transparent) = lady + finger

The compound straightforwardly describes a small, finger-shaped item; the culinary term is conventional but the shape-based meaning is clear to learners.

Etymology

Ladyfinger was given to the small sponge cake because it looks like a thin 'finger' of a lady — light and delicate. That's why the name fits the little cake often used in desserts like tiramisu.