treacle - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (2024)

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:

treacle

Wikipedia

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Treacle

See Also

VFOOD6200 - Excepted items: Confectionery: The bounds of confectionery, sweets, chocolates, chocolate biscuits, cakes and biscuits: The borderline between confectionery and cakes - HMRC internal manualCrumpet vs English MuffinMacca’s hot cakes video stuns viewersFlapjack Vs Pancake - The Core Differences In 2023

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Cookbook:Treacle

See Also

What's the difference between flapjacks, crumpets and English muffins?

Wikibooks

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English triacle, partly from Old French triacle, and partly from Old English tiriaca, both from Late Latin *triaca, *tiriaca, late form of theriaca, ultimately from Ancient Greek θηριακή (thēriakḗ, “antidote”), feminine form of θηριακός (thēriakós, “concerning venomous beasts”), from θήρ (thḗr, “beast”). Doublet of theriacle, equivalent to theriac +‎ -le.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: trēʹ-kəl, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹiː.kəl/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹiː.ku/, /ˈtɹiː.kɯ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːkəl

Noun[edit]

treacle (countable and uncountable, plural treacles)

1. (chiefly Britain) A syrupy byproduct of sugar refining; molasses or golden syrup.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 26, in The History of Pendennis.[…], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans,[…], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Didn’t you see how the cub was ashamed of the thick bread-and-butter? I dare say they’re going to have treacle if they are good.

2. Cloying sentimental speech.

   • 2012 July 22, Frank Rich, “Mayberry R.I.P.”, in New York‎^[1]:

     The public tributes to Griffith were over-the-top in a way his acting never was, spreading treacle from the evening newscasts to the front page of the New York Times.

3. (co*ckney rhyming slang) Sweetheart (from treacle tart).

   Listen, treacle, this is the last time I'll warn you!

4. (obsolete) Synonym of theriac: an antidote for poison, especially snakebite; a supposedly universal antidote.

   • 1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183:

     CHEWING-BALLS, a kind of balls made of aſafœtida, liver of antimony, bay-wood, juniper-wood, and pellitory of Spain; which being dried in the ſun, and wrapped in a linen-cloth, are tied to the bit of the bridle for the horſe to chew: they create an appetite; and it is ſaid, that balls of Venice treacle may be uſed in the ſame manner with good ſucceſs.

5. (obsolete, figurative) Synonym of cure: an all-powerful curative for some particular affliction.
6. (obsolete, figurative) Synonym of cure-all: a panacea for all human ailments.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

treacle (third-person singular simple present treacles, present participle treacling, simple past and past participle treacled)

1. To apply treacle to a surface, so as to catch flies or moths, etc.

Anagrams[edit]

• Electra, lac tree

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=treacle&oldid=78431029"