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rind

UK/ɹaɪnd/US/ɹaɪnd/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,207 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: rinds

A rind is the tough outer skin of cheese or bacon. Cheese rind, cut off the rind, a natural rind.

On cheese it forms as the surface dries, and on some cheeses it is deliberately encouraged with mould and is edible — brie's white rind is part of the cheese. On bacon it is the skin. Note that the Old English word meant tree bark, which is exactly the same idea.

Definitions of rind

  1. 1nounrindThe tough outer skin of cheese or bacon.B2+

    “Cut the rind off the cheese before you grate it.”

    • Said"Take the rind off the bacon for me; it never crisps up in this pan."
    • WrittenThe cheese rinds were grey and tough, and the inside was soft as butter.
    • UsedLeave the rind on the pork for crackling.
    • ContrastA rind, not a skin. A skin is thin and can be eaten; a rind is thick and leathery, and gets trimmed. skin →
    • Not thisOrange peel is not often called rind, though the two words touch. Rind belongs to cheese and bacon.
    • SimplyDo not eat the rind. It is not good.

    Patternbacon / cheese / pork rind · cut off the rind · with the rind on

rind is an outer layer.

Remember it

RIND → what is left beHIND on the plate

Eat the soft cheese, and the hard outside is left behind on the plate, a thin curved wall with nothing inside: the rind.

hooks ontobehind

Where it comes from

Old English rind meant bark or crust. The word is Germanic and its sense has stayed close to the surface layer.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *rem- — to come to rest, support or prop oneself

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *rindō

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *rindā

  4. Old English

    rind

  5. Middle English

    rind

  6. English, today

    rind

Built from

  • rinde · Old English — treebark, crust
  • *rindǭ · Proto-Germanic — crust, rind

From Middle English rind, rinde, from Old English rind and rinde (“treebark, crust”), from Proto-West Germanic rindā, from Proto-Germanic rindō, rindǭ (“crust, rind”), from Proto-Indo-European rem- (“to come to rest, support or prop oneself”). Cognate with German Rinde (“bark, rind”). Related to English rand.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

rind in the wild

  • The rind is typically eaten, with its flavour depending largely upon the ingredients used and its manufacturing environment.

    Brie

  • Taleggio is a semisoft washed-rind smear-ripened Italian cheese named after Val Taleggio, Italy.

    Taleggio cheese

  • The cheese has a thin, edible rind and a strong aroma, but its flavour is comparatively mild with an unusual fruity tang.

    Taleggio cheese

  • Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable which can be peeled off.

    Peel (fruit)

  • Robiola di Roccaverano DOC/PDO has no rind and a slightly straw-yellow coloring with a sweet, yielding taste.

    Robiola

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.