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poached egg

poached egg

7 2.3
An egg cooked in hot water without its shell
  • noun
  • /poʊtʃt ɛɡ/
translation icon : huevo pochado
  • For breakfast, I ordered a salad with a perfectly cooked poached egg on top.
  • poached egg on toast
  • hash and poached eggs
  • poached eggs with sauce

Rye bread, mashed avocado on top, poached egg and spinach.

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Examples

Synonyms

dropped egg
vspoached egg
2.3

An egg cooked gently in hot water without its shell

is the identical cooking method but named using the other common term

How Runny

poached egg
7 2.3
soft-boiled
3 2.0

Surface Forms

poached egg singular
poached eggs plural

Morphology

poached + egg

The meaning 'an egg cooked by simmering without its shell' is directly and compositionally derived from 'poached' (cooked by simmering in liquid) + 'egg'. This adjective+noun cooking term follows a transparent literal pattern and has close equivalents in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.

Etymology

The term poached egg comes from a simple cooking picture: you crack an egg into gently hot water so the white wraps around the yolk and the egg becomes poached as it cooks without its shell. That's why poached egg means 'an egg cooked in hot water without its shell'.