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Glite Dictionary
dropped egg

dropped egg

2.3
An egg cooked gently in hot water without its shell
  • noun
translation icon : huevo escalfado
  • For breakfast, she made a dropped egg on toast with some fresh herbs.

Examples

  • A perfectly cooked dropped egg should have a soft yolk and just-set white.

  • She ordered two dropped eggs for breakfast.

  • The recipe calls for a dropped egg, but you can also use a boiled egg if you prefer.

  • I love a perfectly cooked dropped egg on toast.

  • A perfectly cooked dropped egg should have a soft yolk and just-set white.

  • For breakfast, she made a dropped egg on toast with some fresh herbs.

  • She ordered two dropped eggs for breakfast.

Synonyms

poached egg
vsdropped egg
7 2.3

An egg cooked in hot water without its shell

is the same concept but uses an alternative name in some varieties

How Cooked

boiled egg
15 1.0
dropped egg
2.3

Surface Forms

dropped egg singular
dropped eggs plural

Morphology

dropped + egg

The meaning is partly recoverable from the parts: 'dropped' (let fall/placed) + 'egg' suggests an egg that has been dropped into something, which can plausibly describe the cooking method of poaching. However, this is a specialized culinary usage and can be ambiguous (accidental dropping vs intentional cooking), so the exact sense 'poached egg' is not fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Dropped egg comes from the simple kitchen image of breaking an egg and letting it drop into hot water, where the white cooks around the yolk. That's why 'dropped egg' means a 'poached egg' today.