Souffled

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. To have breathed out forcefully, often in a way that creates a sound or indicates exasperation
2. To have cooked a light, airy dish that rises as it bakes, typically made with egg whites and often served as a dessert or savory dish
3. To have issued forth with a gentle or dramatic release of breath, often in a context involving cooking or expression of feelings

Etymology: "Souffled" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "souffle," which English took from French, where "souffle" means a breath or a puff of air. The French noun comes from Latin "sufflare," "to blow up or inflate," built from "sub-" (up from below) and "flare" (to blow). The sense of the word lies in that breath: a dish that has been whipped to hold air and then rises in the oven as that air expands. The French culinary term "soufflé" took the sense of an airy, puffed-up dish, and English borrowed the word in that culinary sense from French. Because the French noun is a direct borrowing, the English verb simply attaches the regular "-ed" ending to make a past form, so a cook who has made one has "souffled" it.

Synonyms: baked, whipped, puffed, fluffed, risen

Antonyms: collapsed, deflated, flattened, sank, fell