Cheese (?), n. chese, AS. fr. L. caseus, LL. casius. Cf. Casein.]
1.
The curd of milk, coagulated usually with rennet, separated from the whey, and pressed into a solid mass in a hoop or mold.
2.
A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the form of a cheese.
3.
The flat, circuliar, mucilaginous fruit of the dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia).
[Colloq.]
4.
A low courtesy; -- so called on account of the cheese form assumed by a woman's dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration.
De Quincey. Thackeray.
Cheese cake, a cake made of or filled with, a composition of soft curds, sugar, and butter. Prior. -- Cheese fly Zool., a black dipterous insect (Piophila casei) of which the larvae or maggots, called ckippers or hoppers, live in cheese. -- Cheese mite Zool., a minute mite (Tryoglyhus siro) in cheese and other articles of food. -- Cheese press, a press used in making cheese, to separate the whey from the curd, and to press the curd into a mold. -- Cheese rennet Bot., a plant of the Madder family (Golium verum, or yellow bedstraw), sometimes used to coagulate milk. The roots are used as a substitute for madder. -- Cheese vat, a vat or tub in which the curd is formed and cut or broken, in cheese making.
© Webster 1913.