Library / English Dictionary

SPICE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The property of being seasoned with spice and so highly flavored

Synonyms:

spice; spicery; spiciness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

taste property (a property appreciated via the sense of taste)

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

bite; pungency; raciness; sharpness (a strong odor or taste property)

nip; piquance; piquancy; piquantness; tang; tanginess; zest (a tart spicy quality)

hotness; pepperiness (a hot spiciness)

Derivation:

spice (add herbs or spices to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of a variety of pungent aromatic vegetable substances used for flavoring food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

flavorer; flavoring; flavourer; flavouring; seasoner; seasoning (something added to food primarily for the savor it imparts)

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

five spice powder (Chinese seasoning made by grinding star anise and fennel and pepper and cloves and cinnamon)

allspice (ground dried berrylike fruit of a West Indian allspice tree; suggesting combined flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves)

cinnamon (spice from the dried aromatic bark of the Ceylon cinnamon tree; used as rolled strips or ground)

clove (spice from dried unopened flower bud of the clove tree; used whole or ground)

fennel (fennel seeds are ground and used as a spice or as an ingredient of a spice mixture)

ginger; powdered ginger (dried ground gingerroot)

mace (spice made from the dried fleshy covering of the nutmeg seed)

nutmeg (hard aromatic seed of the nutmeg tree used as spice when grated or ground)

Chinese anise; star anise; star aniseed (anise-scented star-shaped fruit or seed used in Asian cooking and medicine)

Derivation:

spice (add herbs or spices to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Aromatic substances of vegetable origin used as a preservative

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

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

preservative (a chemical compound that is added to protect against decay or decomposition)

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

stacte ((Old Testament) one of several sweet-smelling spices used in incense)

Derivation:

spice (add herbs or spices to)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make more interesting or flavorful

Example:

Spice up the evening by inviting a belly dancer

Synonyms:

spice; spice up

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "spice" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "spice"):

salt (add zest or liveliness to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

spicery (the property of being seasoned with spice and so highly flavored)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Add herbs or spices to

Synonyms:

spice; spice up; zest

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "spice" is one way to...):

flavor; flavour; season (lend flavor to)

Domain category:

cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "spice"):

ginger (add ginger to in order to add flavor)

pepper (add pepper to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

spice (the property of being seasoned with spice and so highly flavored)

spice (any of a variety of pungent aromatic vegetable substances used for flavoring food)

spice (aromatic substances of vegetable origin used as a preservative)

spicery (the property of being seasoned with spice and so highly flavored)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It is a mixture of tobacco, crushed areca nut (also called betel nut), spices, and other ingredients.

(Betel quid with tobacco, NCI Dictionary)

The scent of the spice islands was in his nostrils as he had known it on warm, breathless nights at sea, or he beat up against the southeast trades through long tropic days, sinking palm-tufted coral islets in the turquoise sea behind and lifting palm-tufted coral islets in the turquoise sea ahead.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It is my opinion the fiddler David must have been an insipid sort of fellow; I like black Bothwell better: to my mind a man is nothing without a spice of the devil in him; and history may say what it will of James Hepburn, but I have a notion, he was just the sort of wild, fierce, bandit hero whom I could have consented to gift with my hand.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The raw morning had broken ere the hot spiced ale had been served round and the last farewell spoken.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mars will join the planets in your assignment sector (sixth house), namely Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter, adding spice to this area from February 16 until March 30.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I hate tea and silk and spices, and every sort of rubbish his old ships bring, and I don't care how soon they go to the bottom when I own them.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Its garden, too, glowed with flowers: hollyhocks had sprung up tall as trees, lilies had opened, tulips and roses were in bloom; the borders of the little beds were gay with pink thrift and crimson double daisies; the sweetbriars gave out, morning and evening, their scent of spice and apples; and these fragrant treasures were all useless for most of the inmates of Lowood, except to furnish now and then a handful of herbs and blossoms to put in a coffin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But I pray you, squire, to tell your master that he is very welcome to our court, and that wines and spices will be served him, if he would refresh himself before jousting.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I'm afraid I couldn't like him without a spice of human naughtiness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“They carry caviare and certain very noble spices from the Levant aboard of ships from Genoa,” quoth Sir Oliver.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)