mousse
/muːs
/noun [mass noun]
1A sweet or savoury dish made as a smooth, light mass in which the main ingredient is whipped with cream and egg white: sponge topped with chocolate mousse [count noun]: a salmon mousse...
- These are used as required, mixed with liquids and flavourings, to ‘set’ savoury aspic, desserts such as jelly and mousse, and stabilize commercially made ice cream and other foods.
- They have so much potential - a soufflé, cakes, crème brûlée, salmon mousse - or just a good, open omelette filled with seasonal vegetables.
- Bavarois is a kind of dessert like mousse, but made typically with custard in addition to cream, therefore turns out thick and rich.
2 [in singular] A mass of tiny bubbles that forms on the top of a glass of champagne or sparkling wine: the Brut Réserve possesses a wonderful creamy mousse of small, compact bubbles...
- Champagne and other sparkling wines were once drunk in a flat, saucer-like glass called a coupe, but this has been abandoned in favour of the tall flute which preserves the wine's mousse.
- This sparkling wine has a nice creamy mousse backed by juicy stone fruit notes, a genuine bargain to be sure.
- This predominantly Pinot Noir based sparkling wine has a creamy mousse with a lingering almond finish.
3A light, foamy preparation used for styling hair: apply a dollop of volumizing mousse to the roots and work it in towards the ends of your hair [count noun]: experiment with different styling products such as mousses and gels...
- Achieve increased resilience and shape-holding power from setting lotions, mousses and hair sprays.
- The shelf in the bathroom was littered with tins of hair spray, styling mousse, shampoo and conditioner, blobs of each of which had been splurted onto every available surface.
- Yucca, quince seed, balsam and yarrow are often added to natural styling gels, mousse and hair sprays for their thickening and emulsifying qualities.
3.1A cosmetic or skincare product with a foamy consistency: this rich shower mousse has an uplifting blend of grapefruit, lemon, orange peel, and cedarwood oils...
- This lightweight, creamy shower mousse softens and smooths the skin while you enjoy the refreshing and revitalising notes of the Eau Dynamisante fragrance.
- This gift includes body mousse, body lotion, bubble bath, soap, body spray & a natural body bath scrub brush.
4 (also chocolate mousse) A frothy brown emulsion of oil and seawater formed by weathering of an oil slick.The recovered oil is unaffected by the conveyor belt system and does not mix the oil into a ‘chocolate mousse’....
- Large lumps of oil or semi-solid oil/water mousse will tend to be physically lifted out of the water by the moving belt as shown at 15 in Fig. 5C.
verb [with object]
Style (hair) using mousse: mousse each section before winding on rollers (as adjective moussed) his blow-dried and moussed hair...
- With his baggy pants, red goatee, and moussed hair, Mike Hoffman looks more like a guy taking some time off after college than a 25-year-old combat veteran.
- Her hair was moussed to within an inch of its life, and even the damp Maine breeze couldn't wet or move it.
- He wore a crisp white shirt and had his black hair neatly parted and moussed.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from French, 'moss or froth'.
Rhymes
- highbrow
- high-browed
- highbrowism
- high brown
- high-bush blueberry
- highbush cranberry
- high C
- high-cal
- high-caliber
- high-calibre
- high-calorie
- high camp
- high campery
- high-carbon
- high-ceilinged
- high center
- high-center
- high-centered
- high-centering
- high centre
- high-centred
- high-centring
- high chair
- high change
- high-cheekboned