ice creamn.
/ˌʌɪs ˈkriːm/, /ˈʌɪs kriːm/, U.S. /ˈaɪs ˌkrim/, /ˌaɪs ˈkrim/ 1. A soft, sweet, frozen dessert, made with milk and cream and typically flavoured with vanilla, fruit, or other ingredients.The ingredients of ice cream may differ locally according to custom and regulation.Neapolitan, strawberry, vanilla ice cream, etc.: see the first element.
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the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > confections or sweetmeats > ices > [noun] > ice-cream
ice cream1672
iced cream1688
cream ice1849
1672 E. Ashmole Inst. Order of Garter xxii. 611 The Soveraign's Table on the Eve..One Plate of Ice Cream.
1744 in Pennsylvania Mag. Hist. & Biogr. (1877) I. 126 Among the rarities..was some fine ice cream, which, with the strawberries and milk, eat most deliciously.
1755 H. Glasse Art of Cookery (ed. 5) App. 332 (heading) To make Ice Cream..set it [sc. the cream] into the larger Bason. Fill it with Ice, and a Handful of Salt.
1785 T. Holcroft tr. P. A. C. de Beaumarchais Follies of Day iii. 53 Honor in a Woman's possession, like Ice Cream in the mouth, melts away.
1840 Colored Amer. 4 July J.B. Brown & S.L. Wood Confectionary & Fruit Store, No. 99 Spring street, corner of Mercer street. Mead, Root-Beer, Ice-Cream, Preserves, &c.
1882 Harper's Mag. June 57/1 Rall and Tando cooled their jangling passions in plates of ice-cream.
1903 A. Langdon Just for Two 173 Black and White. Layers of ice cream with chocolate sauce poured over.
1957 Min. Agric. Food Standards Comm. Rep. Ice Cream (H.M.S.O.) 4 The bulk of ice cream now produced in this country is made from margarine and other non-milk fats... We recommend that special provision should be made to reserve the description ‘dairy ice cream’..for ice cream in which the fat content is wholly milk fat.
1978 M. Kenyon Deep Pocket i. 5 The vendors of over-priced ice-cream at Marble Arch.
2008 J. S. Sawyers Civilized Shopper's Guide Edinb. & Glasgow 144 The desserts too are special, such as the cranachan ice cream..or baked cranachan Alaska.
2. A portion or serving of this, eaten as (part of) a dessert or as a refreshment.
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?1710 Court & City Vagaries 10 He began to entreat they would permit him to treat 'em with some Jellies, and Ice-Creams, at White's Chocolate-house.
1735 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 7/1 In Summer, Things of light Digestion, and even Whipt Syllabubs and Ice Creams are agreeable.
1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France I. 181 The ice-creams melt with the room's excessive heat.
1841 R. W. Emerson in Dial Apr. 532 We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, and so we buy ice-creams.
1861 I. M. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. xxx. 760 The principal utensils required for making ice-creams are ice-tubs, freezing-pots, spaddles, and a cellaret... The use of the spaddle is to stir up..the cream.
1908 Daily Chron. 4 Aug. 3/4 Ice creams at 3d. a time went ‘like hot cakes’.
1987 N. Gordimer Sport of Nature 29 Joe took them all off for an ice-cream.
2008 J. Quinn Goodnight Ballivor xxvii. 128 There was a bewildering array of sweets and ice-creams to tantalise a young boy.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
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1810 T. Mason et al. Inventory 20 Aug. in E. E. Prussing Estate of G. Washington (1927) 435 2 Pewter Ice Cream Pots.
1821 National Advocate (N.Y.) 3 Aug. Among the number of ice cream gardens in this city, there was none in which the sable race could find admission and refreshment.
1844 J. Cowell Thirty Years among Players II. iii. 64/2 With the ice-cream profits, he purchased bricks and mortar, and built the Chatham Theatre.
1873 J. H. Beadle Undeveloped West xxviii. 623 Two months vigorous courting will cost more than that—particularly in the ice-cream season.
1901 ‘H. McHugh’ John Henry 95 We left the mob just as all hands were paddling off to the ice-cream trough.
1922 S. Lewis Babbitt ix. 123 He gulped down a chill and glutinous slice of the ice-cream brick.
1955 V. Nabokov Lolita ii. i. 19 Now and then..huge trees would..provide a bit of humanitarian shade above a picnic table, with sun flecks, flattened paper cups,..and discarded icecream-sticks.
1980 M. Robinson Housekeeping x. 196 We asked to stop at an ice-cream stand by the road in the woods and she stopped and bought us hot fudge sundaes.
2002 Wall St. Jrnl. 2 Jan. a10/4 Always the Good-Humor Man, Mr. Bernstein keeps the cooler in the corner filled with ice-cream bars to reward extra effort.
C2.
a.
ice cream cake n.
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1847 E. Leslie Lady's Receipt-bk. 205 Ice-cream cakes.—Stir together, till very light, a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter.
1880 E. W. Wilcox Buckeye Cookery & Pract. Housek. 83 Ice-cream cake... Make good sponge-cake... Fill with ice-cream just before serving.
1905 N.Y. Evening Post 4 Aug. 7 Angel cake, sponge cake, and ice-cream cake have conspired to relegate the seed cake to practical oblivion.
2000 Treehouse Canad. Family Oct. 58/1 (heading) This frozen ice-cream cake is handy to have tucked away in the freezer.
ice cream cornet n. (see cornet n.1 5d).
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1908 Atlanta (Georgia) Constit. 12 Apr. The best thing on earth as a delicious food and appreciated by all classes of people is the ice cream cornets.., made and sold wholesale and retail by the Duquesne Baking Co.
1961 C. Willock Death in Covert iii. 73 The liveried servants held flambeaux like ice-cream cornets.
2000 J. Pemberton Forever & Ever Amen 2 Ice-cream cornet with chocolate strawberry syrup..and still..change from a bob for Whizzer and Chips.
ice cream freezer n.
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1837 E. Leslie Directions for Cookery 405 Frozen punch—Is made as above, omitting one half of the rum or whiskey. Put it into an ice-cream freezer, shaking or stirring it all the time.
1906 H. James in N. Amer. Rev. Aug. 257 The American..makes one ask if the cash-register, the ice-cream freezer, the lightning-elevator, the ‘boy's paper’, and other such overflows, do truly represent the sum of its passions.
2000 C. Kimball Dessert Bible xvi. 357/2 A granita and an Italian ice are pretty much the same thing, except that the ice has been churned in an ice cream freezer.
ice cream man n.
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1834 N.-Y. Ann. Reg. 270/1 Ice cream man.
1889 A. T. Pask Eyes of Thames 123 Three Italian ice-cream men, with their heavy barrows.
1940 Life 16 Sept. 27/1 The errand boys wear tin hats, the ice-cream man reappears before the ‘All Clear’ siren has sounded.
2003 N.Y. Times Mag. 5 Oct. 36/2 In the second set, Muz begins as an ice-cream man in a white coat, curly wig and mustache, tossing Good Humor cones to the audience.
ice cream mixer n.
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1894 Birmingham Daily Post 22 Aug. 3/7 The Italians, armed with ugly instruments known as ice-cream mixers, pursued the hawkers into a house.
1904 Proc. Royal Soc. 73 504 Using the modified ice-cream mixer described by Moody.
2010 Evening Post (Nottingham) (Nexis) 22 Jan. 82 Add white chocolate and whisk, then leave to cool and churn in ice cream mixer.
ice cream parlour n. (see parlour n. 4a).
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1842 T. G. Hulett Every Man his own Guide to Falls of Niagara 14 Opposite the Old Curiosity Shop is an Ice Cream parlor, where visitors may at all hours obtain this luxury of hot weather.
1884 Milnor (Dakota Territory) Teller 27 June An ice cream parlor where the dudes and dudines sip..congealed milk and sugar.
1950 G. Greene Third Man ii. 16 The American zone, which you couldn't mistake because of the ice-cream parlours in every street.
2006 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 9 Apr. 24/1 A teenager fitting Sandilands' description ran into an ice-cream parlour in Campbell Parade on the afternoon of March 20.
ice cream saloon n.
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1839 N.-Y. Mirror 17 Aug. 63 Weller and Thompson, with all the other ice-cream saloons, are crowded at night, and the city abundantly filled with strangers.
1908 Secret Service 10 Jan. 2/2 They visited the ice cream saloon, to which Barney led the way unerringly.
2010 D. Greene Unmentionables xlvi. 465 As he was walking, he came upon an ice cream saloon.
ice cream vendor n.
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1854 S. P. Parton Shadows & Sunbeams 140 Stable-keepers, oyster and ice-cream vendors, liquor sellers, et id omne genus, are reaping a golden harvest, upon which the ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ shall, sooner or later, send ‘a blight and a mildew’.
1876 J. Greenwood Low-life Deeps 113 It is not many years since the youth of London were amazed by the appearance of the first perambulating ice-cream vendor.
1953 W. S. Burroughs Jrnl. 16 July in Everything Lost (2008) 110 I gave most of it [sc. my possessions] to an ice cream vendor. Some to a gold toothed Chinese waiter.
2003 Eve Aug. 58/2 In 1997 Boddingtons cast her in two ads, most memorably in one as an ice-cream vendor (fetching pastel pinny, musical van and all).
b.
ice cream cone n. (a) (originally North American) a crisp, thin, usually conical wafer for holding ice cream; (b) (chiefly North American) such a cone containing ice cream.Cf. cornet n.1 5d.
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1905 Morning Olympian (Olympia, Washington) 9 Apr. E. J. Berneche, proprietor of the German bakery, has obtained the right to manufacture..the new Parisian ice cream cones... The new confection was very popular at the St. Louis exposition last summer.
1909 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 15 May 11/2 The remainder is about equally divided among popcorn, ice cream cones, and candy.
1954 V. Cronin Golden Honeycomb xxii. 242 The little boy..holds a huge strawberry ice-cream cone.
2005 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 30 June 23 The manufacture of confectionery products,..teacakes, ice cream cones and wafers.
ice cream headache n. severe but usually short-lived pain in the frontal or temporal region of the head, induced by the consumption of very cold food or drink or by other exposure to cold; an instance of this.
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1937 R. Timbres Jrnl. 31 Jan. in H. Timbres & R. Timbres We didn't ask Utopia (1939) 225 Your nose and fingertips get quite numb, too [in extremely cold weather], and if you don't keep rubbing your forehead, you get what we used to call ‘an ice cream headache’.
1964 Washington Post 5 Apr. e7/3 He's trying to find out the processes involved in the so-called ice cream headache.
2006 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 20 Aug. 35 A British Medical Journal study found eating cold foods quickly doubled the likelihood of ice-cream headache.
ice cream maker n. (a) a person who or business that makes ice cream; (b) a machine designed to make ice cream; cf. sorbetière n.
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1831 G. Baretti Dizionario Italiana & Inglese (ed. 8) I Sorbettiére, an ice-cream maker, a confectioner.
1888 Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 669 Ice-cream makers and market-men are also among the most important consumers.
1946 Pop. Mechanics May 156/1 Combination ice cream maker and vendor that will make an ice cream ‘stick’, spiral-wrap it and hand it to you in a jiffy.
1991 South Aug. 71/3 Ben and Jerry's, the hugely popular US ice cream makers are buying Brasil and cashew nuts from Amazon indians for their Rainforest Crunch homemade icecream.
2006 D. Edgerton Shock of Old (2008) iii. 71 In 2003 research for a British insurance company suggested the existence of £3.2bn-worth of unused goods, headed by sandwich toasters, electric knives, soda streams, foot spas, and ice-cream makers.
ice cream pants n. U.S. (now chiefly historical) lightweight men’s trousers, typically white or cream-coloured; cf. ice cream suit n.
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1877 Portsmouth (Ohio) Times 3 Nov. You can tell the man who has been off to the sea shore or summer resort—he wears his ice cream pants.
1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet ii. ii. 125 He had on the first white flannel trousers Frenchman's Bend ever saw... That afternoon the night station agent told of a frightened and battered man in a pair of ruined ice-cream pants.
1997 L. Vandenbergh & E. G. Shettleworth Revisiting Seal Harbor & Acadia National Park (2002) ii. 53 Women laced into wasp-waist dresses and men decked in ice-cream pants, dark coats, and stylish boaters.
ice cream sandwich n. originally North American a refreshment consisting of a portion of ice cream served between two wafers or biscuits.
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1898 North-Eastern Daily Gaz. (Middlesbrough) 12 Apr. He stated that he had had ‘an ice-cream sandwich,’ and blamed this for the pain in his head.
1900 Washington Post 25 July 4/8 The ice cream sandwich man..sells quarter inch layers of alleged ice cream between tiny slabs of water wafers.
1963 R. T. Holt & J. E. Turner Soviet Union 46 Others crowd around a kiosk to buy a drink of pink lemonade or an ‘Eskimo’ ice cream sandwich.
2006 Commerc. Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) (Nexis) 21 Oct. 7 There will be free hotdogs, chips and ice cream sandwiches.
ice cream social n. North American a social gathering at which ice cream (and sometimes other food) is served, esp. one organized by a church or school as a fund-raising event; cf. ice cream supper n.
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1870 Republican Daily Jrnl. (Lawrence, Kansas) 25 May The Universalist Ladies' Sewing-Society will meet at the residence of Mr. Henry Learned..this afternoon. An ice cream social at the same place in the evening.
1917 W. A. Wilkinson Rural School Managem. ii. 29 In the case of the ice cream social, the milk and other materials are usually donated by the patrons, while the ice cream is made and served by the pupils under the direction of the teachers.
2005 N.Y. Times Mag. 25 Sept. 26/2 The conversation turned to the ice-cream social that the church ladies were planning, with all the proceeds going to charity.
ice cream soda n. originally U.S. a drink consisting of ice cream served in a glass with a soft drink or flavoured soda water.
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1862 Newport (Rhode Island) Daily News 4 Aug. (advt.) Sheldon's celebrated ice cream soda... Try it, try it, try it.
1925 J. Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer ii. ii. 161 Morris was holding out a vanilla icecream soda to her. ‘Dreamin' again Cassie; anybody'd think you was a snowbird.’
1998 N. Whittaker Sweet Talk (1999) 173 Cherryade, limeade, dandelion and burdock, American ice-cream soda, lemonade, orangeade—whichever flavour we chose, they all had one thing in common: tepidness.
ice cream suit n. originally and chiefly U.S. and Australian a lightweight white or cream-coloured suit; cf. ice cream pants n.
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1874 Owyhee Avalanche (Silver City, Idaho) 17 Jan. 1/3 Clothed in his ice cream suit.
1954 Austral. Women's Weekly 17 Mar. 31/1 Your ice-cream suit is too dressed up for school. I only wear my white linen suit when I'm going to a garden party or some very important function.
2002 R. A. Caro Master of Senate (2003) v. xl. 960 Ellender and Byrd in ice cream suits, most of the others in senatorial dark blue despite the heat.
ice cream supper n. U.S. regional (chiefly southern and south Midland) a social gathering at supper time at which ice cream (and sometimes other food) is served, typically organized as a fund-raising event; cf. ice cream social n.
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1861 Burlington (Iowa) Weekly Hawk-eye 6 July The ladies invited them to a picnic at Woods' Grove, and Mrs Garrett gives them an ice cream supper at night.
1914 Missouri State Board of Agric. Monthly Bull. Apr. 99 The women..have to call on the men for money when they get ready for their ice cream suppers and other money-making activities.
1988 M. A. Grissom Southern by Grace of God iii. 73 The poverty-stricken women of the South..could have dispensed with their..ice cream suppers.., with which they laboriously gathered in their nickles and dimes.
2005 Lockhart (Texas) Post.-Reg. 18 Aug. 1 c/1 The Fentress United Methodist Church hosted an Ice Cream Supper and Sing-A-Long complete with homemade ice cream, cake and sugar cones.
ice cream van n. chiefly British a commercial vehicle from which ice cream is sold, typically at the roadside.
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1883 Leicester Chron. & Leics. Mercury 11 Aug. (Suppl.) 3/2 Other parts of the field were covered with ‘highfliers’, ice-cream vans, roundabouts, and the usual concomitants of fete and gala.
1966 J. Cleary High Commissioner i. 19 An ice-cream van went slowly by, its bell tinkling.
2002 P. Finch Real Cardiff 56 The ice cream van has a cluster of kids buying 99s and choc encrusted Cornettos.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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