🔪 To chop finely 👠 To walk delicately 🥩 Ground meat

to mince

5 7.7

To walk with short, light steps to seem delicate

verb
/mɪns/

: caminar con pasos cortos y amanerados

Look at him mincing around.
mincing words
minces around

Examples

Erin minces her way down to the deep end of the pool.

Fiction book (2000)
Miss Ferrell minced along just in front of me.

Fiction book (1993)
I keep wondering what you're doing mincing around the stage.

Me and Orson Welles (2008)
There was something annoyingly mincing about the way he walked.

Fiction book (1994)
Slowly and delicately, he minces around the garage perimeter, across the driveway.

Fiction book (1998)
Julia was a senior in high school, naturally matter-of-fact, never mincing words.

Fiction book (2001)
She minced delicately across the stage, captivating the audience with her poise.
The little girl was mincing down the garden path, her new shoes sparkling in the sunlight.
He tended to mince while walking through the posh neighborhood, trying to impress the onlookers.

Synonyms

to tiptoe

vsto mince

44 3.1

To walk quietly on the toes to avoid making noise

uses short, dainty steps to appear affected or delicate

Antonyms

to march

389 1.0

To walk in a steady, organized way with other people

to stride

16 2.7

To walk with long confident steps toward a place

Idioms

to mince no words

Informal

1 7.7

Speak very directly without trying to be polite

Phrasal Verbs

to mince words

Informal

16 7.1

Speak in a careful, indirect way to avoid offending people

Compounds

mince pie

3 3.1

A small round sweet pie with a fruit and spice filling often eaten at Christmas

How Dainty

to mince

5 7.7

to walk

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

mince infinitive

minced past

minced past participle

mincing present participle

minces third person singular

Etymology

Mince comes from the Latin word minutus meaning 'small', and a helpful way to remember the walking sense is to think of mini and 'small' steps, so to mince is to walk with short, delicate steps.