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Glite Dictionary
mignonette

mignonette

1 9.9
A small garden plant with many tiny, spicy-smelling flowers
  • noun
  • /ˌmɪn.jəˈnɛt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : mignonette
  • You need the mouthfeel of the mignonette.
  • mignonette sauce

Examples

  • The pansies were in a bad humor for they were making ugly faces at the mignonette.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Hopefully a shitty dude didn't ruin the oyster bar in Williamsburg for you. If it was the same one as the one in the picture (I feel so wack that I can recognize a bar by the dish in which they serve their mignonette).

    Blog text (21)

  • Oysters on the half shell were good, but the mignonette was warm, not chilled, and much too vinegary.

    Blog text (29)

  • WAITER: Chef Slowik would like to welcome you with a raw local oyster in a mignonette emulsion, with lemon caviar and an oyster leaf.

    The Menu (2022)

  • The scent of mignonette is strongest when plants are grown in full sun and poor soil.

  • Snapdragons, candytufts, mignonettes, nasturtium, and Sweet William rambled about the garden.

  • Seeds of the mignonette can be started in pots in September and set in sunny windows for spring bloom.

Synonyms

Reseda odorata
vsmignonette
  • Specialized
9.9

A Mediterranean plant with many small flowers that smell very sweet

is the everyday garden name used by nontechnical speakers
sweet reseda
vsmignonette
9.9

A Mediterranean plant with many flowers that have a strong scent

is characterized by a spicy scent rather than a general strong smell

Compounds

dyer's mignonette
  • UK
9.9

A plant with yellow flowers people use to make yellow dye

mignonette family
  • Specialized
9.9

A group of mostly Mediterranean herbs like mignonette

Surface Forms

mignonette singular
mignonettes plural

Morphology

mignonette = mignon + ette

Although containing the diminutive suffix '-ette', the root 'mignon' is a French element not a productive English base, so English learners cannot reliably infer the plant sense from its parts.

Etymology

Mignonette comes from French mignon meaning 'cute' or 'dainty' and the little-ending -ette meaning 'small', so the name literally means 'little delicate one'. That's why the plant is called mignonette: it has small, delicate, sweet-smelling flowers.