macaroni

IPA/ˌmækəˈrəʊni/
KK[mˌækɚˈoni]IPA/ˌmækəˈrəʊni/

macaroni — noun

  • macaronisingular
  • macaronisplural

1. pasta made as short hollow pieces, often eaten in dishes such as macaroni and ch

1.nounB2
Definition

pasta made as short hollow pieces, often eaten in dishes such as macaroni and cheese

Example

Nkechi baked macaroni with cheese for the school picnic.

collocation: macaroni with cheese

A bowl of hot macaroni waited on the table after practice.

a bowl of macaroni

Common collocations
  • macaroni with cheese
  • a bowl of macaroni
  • creamy macaroni
  • cook macaroni
Synonyms
  • pasta

    a much broader word that includes many other Italian shapes as well

  • elbow macaroni

    a very common curved kind of macaroni, especially in baked dishes

Grammar Patterns

a bowl of macaroni

macaroni with cheese

stir macaroni into sauce

Usage Note

Usually uncountable when you mean the food in a dish or bowl. If you want to count separate kinds or shapes, add another noun such as types or pieces.

Common Mistakes

I bought three macaronis for dinner.
I bought some macaroni for dinner.
When you mean the food itself, macaroni is usually treated as uncountable.

2. in British history, a young man who copied foreign fashions and manners in a ver

2.nounC2
Definition

in British history, a young man who copied foreign fashions and manners in a very showy way

Example

London papers mocked Christopher as a macaroni for his bright French coat.

call someone a macaroni

At the club, older officers laughed at the macaroni's jeweled shoes.

Common collocations
  • call someone a macaroni
  • dress like a macaroni
  • a macaroni's wig
Synonyms
  • dandy

    a broader old-fashioned word for a man who pays great attention to clothes and style

  • fop

    an older and more mocking word for a vain, over-dressed man

Grammar Patterns

call someone a macaroni

look like a macaroni

Usage Note

Used mainly in writing about late eighteenth-century Britain. In modern English, it is mostly a historical label rather than an everyday word for a stylish man.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Macaroni names one particular pasta shape, so it is narrower than pasta, which covers everything from spaghetti to ravioli. Noodle is broader in a different way, because it can refer to Asian wheat or rice strands as well as some pasta shapes in informal speech. Penne is closer, since it is also a short tube pasta, but penne is usually larger and cut diagonally. Elbow macaroni is the especially common curved form people often use in macaroni and cheese. If a recipe says pasta, many shapes may work. If it says macaroni, the writer usually wants that small tube shape.

pasta ↗noodle ↗penne ↗elbow macaroni

Etymology

ItalianEnglish

English borrowed macaroni from Italian maccheroni, the name of a tubular pasta. In eighteenth-century Britain, the word was later used jokingly for fashionable young men who returned from Continental travel with exaggerated foreign tastes and clothes.

First known use

1673

1673, in the meaning defined at sense 1