mincemeat

English

Mince pie filled with mincemeat (sense 1)

Etymology

An alteration of earlier minced meat.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

mincemeat (countable and uncountable, plural mincemeats)

1. A mixture of fruit, spices and sugar used as a filling for mince pies.
2. (rare) Minced meat, mince.
3. (by analogy) A badly cut-up body or parts of a body.
   • 2010, The Orbitology, The Book of Godom & Somorrah, →ISBN, page 29:

     Slicing up every man, woman, and child into mincemeat.

   • 2011, Fred Vargas, An Uncertain Place, →ISBN, page 46:

     This was another phenomenon for which there was no word: someone had reduced the body of another man to mincemeat.

   • 2011, Scott Kenemore, Zombie, Ohio: A Tale of the Undead, →ISBN, page 228:

     His chest and neck turned into mincemeat. The double chin had been blown away completely, revealing a skeletal jaw and chemically whitened teeth.

4. (by extension) Something or someone utterly destroyed.
   • 2002 March 20, Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (PlayStation video game, North American version), Konami:

     Weevil Underwood: My army of insects will make mincemeat out of you!

   • 2003, Theresa Deane, 500 Days of Front Line Combat: The WWII Memoir of Ralph B. Schaps, →ISBN:

     No one was to be spared in this frightful slaughter. The American 34th, 36th Texas, lst Armored, the British, the New Zealanders, the Indians, the Poles and the French, under the brilliant General Juin; all were to be ground to mincemeat by futile attacks against this fortress.

   • 2007 January 18, “Solicitor thought client was 'mincemeat'”, in The Age:

     "He said his client had been receiving death threats and he was quite paranoid. "His exact words were: 'I think he's mincemeat by now'."

   • 2007, Bill Napier, Splintered Icon, →ISBN:

     For the common man in the sixteenth century, a calendar which paced not just the seasons but also the life of Christ would have to be divinely inspired. It would capture his heart and his mind. Pope Gregory's four hundred-year-one would become mincemeat.

   • 2012 December 24, Mark Heisler, “After Looking East to the Knicks, Nash Cut West to the Lakers”, in New York Times:

     Happily for the Lakers, who were mincemeat without him, Nash is back in the nick of time, with the Knicks, who walked all over them in New York two weeks ago, in town for a Christmas Day game.

Synonyms

• (mixture of fruit and spices): mince
• (minced meat): ground meat, mince

Derived terms

• make mincemeat out of, make mincemeat of
• mincemeat pie
• mincemeaty

Translations

mixture of fruit, etc used as a filling

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 百果餡／百果馅 (bǎiguǒxiàn), 果餡／果馅 (guǒxiàn)

• Finnish: sekahedelmätäyte
• Italian: pasticcio di frutta secca, mele, spezie, zucchero, rhum o cognac m
• Scottish Gaelic: mions m
• Welsh: briwffrwyth m

minced meat

• Greek:

  Ancient: ἰσίκιον n (isíkion), περίκομμα n (períkomma)

• Italian: carne macinata f
• Latin: minutal n, īsicium n
• Swedish: köttfärs (sv) c
• Welsh: briwgig (cy) m

something or someone utterly destroyed

• Swedish: slarvsylta c

Anagrams

• emamectin