cheese1
/tʃiːz
/- In summer it was normal to live on milk, butter, cheese curds and whey, while in autumn a number of cattle were killed, their beef being salted to eat during the winter.
- To test my theory I've decided to eliminate all food made with cheese, butter or milk from his diet.
- Another common intolerance is to dairy products, including cow's milk, cheese, yoghurt and cream.
- This is the first year that there was a special category for washed rind cheeses.
- This cheese has a bloomy rind and a fluffy, mellow center.
- I remember rubbing the mould from beautiful unpasteurised washed rind cheeses with a soft cloth.
Phrases
hard cheese
say cheese
Origin
Old English cēse, cȳse, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch kaas and German Käse; from Latin caseus.
big from Middle English:
Like many small words, big appeared from nowhere. It is first recorded in the early Middle Ages meaning ‘strong, powerful’, and clear examples referring just to size do not emerge until the 16th century. The sense ‘elder’ as in big brother or big sister is first found in the 19th century. In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-four the head of state is called Big Brother, and ‘Big Brother is watching you’ is the caption on posters showing his face. The novel was published in 1949, and very quickly people started using Big Brother to refer to any person or organization exercising total control over people's lives. Various other phrases involving big refer to an important or influential person, such as big cheese, which first came into use in American slang during the early 1900s. It almost certainly has no connection with food—the word cheese here probably comes from Urdu and Persian cīz, which just means ‘thing’.
Rhymes
cheese2
/tʃiːz/- Virtually everybody in the factory - the boss, or should I say the big cheese, included - is gathered round, transfixed by the Japanese Grand Prix.
- Somehow, I don't think you'd get that with an audience of big cheeses.
- Someone recommended I talk to them because they were the big cheeses when it comes to films.
Origin
1920s: probably via Urdu from Persian čīz 'thing': the phrase the cheese was used earlier to mean 'first-rate' (i.e. the thing).
cheese3
/tʃiːz/- More people are going down this route because they are cheesed off that they have to pay crazy prices for a bigger property.
- There is a lot of support in the town and they are cheesed off with the arrogance of the Liberal Democrats.
- It's the existence of the rich that cheeses them off.
Phrases
cheese it!
Origin
Early 19th century (in the archaic phrase cheese it, used to urge someone to stop doing something): of unknown origin.