tiffin
/ˈtɪf.ɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.54 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A cake-like confection composed of crushed biscuits, sugar, syrup, raisins, cherries and cocoa powder, often covered with a layer of melted chocolate.
Countable; Uncountable
name
An unincorporated community in St. Clair County, Missouri, United States.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "He took his tiffin from home and ate the food two hours later in school."
- "[…] I bought a pine-apple at the same time, which I gave to Sambo. Let's have it for tiffin; very cool and nice this hot weather."
- "That garden belongs to Manockjee Metta; that day many of us met and had tiffin and supper. At tiffin there were ten of us."
- ""Bring sahib coffee at six in the morning; breakfast at nine; tiffin at one." / "What's that last one, Moro?" / "We had tiffin at Suez, and it means luncheon," interposed Morris. / "I didn't hear the word; but it is all right, and tiffin it is after this time. Come; are you going down-stairs, fellows?""
- "Had tiffin at 11.30 a.m. 1½ rations of rice with fried fish. Added frying oil and soup powder. Excellent, both in quantity and quality, but stomach is a bit troublesome. Can't wonder at it really!"
- "Tiffin is an old colonial term. Often thought of as a snack taken with afternoon tea, tiffin is actually a light lunch eaten at midday. Indian colonial writings make numerous references to tiffin. […] Tiffin was not always the lightest of meals. In a 1904 account, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, an American travel writer and photographer, described the overindulgent culinary order of the day in colonial Calcutta: "The solid two-o'clock tiffin, following the heavy ten-o'clock breakfast, is so soon succeeded by the four-o'clock tea and the eight-o'clock dinner, that it is a surprise that any one survives the constant feasting which fills Anglo-Indian life.""
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈtɪf.ɪn/