MEAT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does meat mean? 

• MEAT (noun)
  The noun MEAT has 3 senses:

1. the flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food

2. the inner and usually edible part of a seed or grain or nut or fruit stone

3. the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

  Familiarity information: MEAT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEAT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("meat" is a kind of...):

food; solid food (any solid substance (as opposed to liquid) that is used as a source of nourishment)

Meronyms (substance of "meat"):

protein (any of a large group of nitrogenous organic compounds that are essential constituents of living cells; consist of polymers of amino acids; essential in the diet of animals for growth and for repair of tissues; can be obtained from meat and eggs and milk and legumes)

hexadecanoic acid; palmitic acid (a saturated fatty acid that is the major fat in meat and dairy products)

Domain member category:

au jus (served in its natural juices or gravy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meat"):

beef; boeuf (meat from an adult domestic bovine)

escargot; snail (edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a sauce of melted butter and garlic)

sausage meat (any meat that is minced and spiced and cooked as patties or used to fill sausages)

sausage (highly seasoned minced meat stuffed in casings)

porc; pork (meat from a domestic hog or pig)

lamb (the flesh of a young domestic sheep eaten as food)

mouton; mutton (meat from a mature domestic sheep)

horseflesh; horsemeat (the flesh of horses as food)

veal; veau (meat from a calf)

pemican; pemmican (lean dried meat pounded fine and mixed with melted fat; used especially by North American Indians)

jerk; jerked meat; jerky (meat (especially beef) cut in strips and dried in the sun)

halal ((Islam) meat from animals that have been slaughtered in the prescribed way according to the shariah)

carbonado (a piece of meat (or fish) that has been scored and broiled)

cold cuts (sliced assorted cold meats)

cut; cut of meat (a piece of meat that has been cut from an animal carcass)

organs; variety meat (edible viscera of a butchered animal)

red meat (meat that is dark in color before cooking (as beef, venison, lamb, mutton))

raw meat (uncooked meat)

dark meat (the flesh of the legs of fowl used as food)

game (the flesh of wild animals that is used for food)

bird; fowl (the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food)

stew meat (tough meat that needs stewing to be edible)

Derivation:

meaty (like or containing meat)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The inner and usually edible part of a seed or grain or nut or fruit stone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

kernel; meat

Context example:

black walnut kernels are difficult to get out of the shell

Hypernyms ("meat" is a kind of...):

plant part; plant structure (any part of a plant or fungus)

Holonyms ("meat" is a part of...):

seed (a small hard fruit)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum

Context example:

the nub of the story

Hypernyms ("meat" is a kind of...):

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meat"):

hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)

haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)

quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)

stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)

bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)

Derivation:

meaty (being on topic and prompting thought)

 Context examples 

Martin was not yet rich enough to afford meat, and he was on slim allowance when the White Mouse check arrived.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And no widow nor weak one shall cry in the night because there is no meat, when the strong men are groaning in great pain for that they have eaten overmuch.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He took them out of their cases, and told us, that in his own country his practice was to shave his beard with one of these, and cut his meat with the other.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I have had plenty of meat, answered he, but I should like to have a piece of bread to eat after it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

"Neither. He's a—a—a meat dog," said the girl.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

No man ate of the seal meat or the oil.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

She could get meat, and she never failed to bring him his share.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This substance may be formed during cooking of foods that contain sodium nitrite as a preservative, including meat, fish and cheese.

(N-Nitrosopyrrolidine, NCI Thesaurus)

This substance is naturally formed in foods that contain sodium nitrite as a preservative, including meat, fish and cheese, as a result of nitrosation of piperidine in the presence of nitrite.

(N-Nitrosopiperidine, NCI Thesaurus)