biscuit

English

A soft and flaky American biscuit (2) on the left and a hard British biscuit (1) on the right.

This American biscuit (2) has been broken open to show its interior; honey is being drizzled onto it.

The hard, flat, baked goods in tins like these are sometimes sold as biscuits (1) even in America, not just in the UK.

La Nourrice biscuit (5) after Louis Boizot.

Etymology

PIE word
*dwóh₁

From earlier bisket, from Middle English bisquyte, borrowed from Old French bescuit (French biscuit); doublet of biscotti.

Pronunciation

enPR: bĭs'kĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈbɪskɪt/
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (UK) (file)
Audio (AU) (file)
(Philippine) IPA^(key): /bɪs.ˈkwit/
Rhymes: -ɪskɪt

Noun

biscuit (countable and uncountable, plural biscuits)

(UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, sometimes Canada, rare in the US) A small, flat, baked good which is either hard and crisp or else soft but firm; a cookie.
- 1992 October 3, Edwina Currie, Diary:
  Weighed myself at the gym and have hit 10st 8lb, a sure sign of things getting out of control—so I can’t even console myself with a chocolate biscuit.
(chiefly Canada, US, rare in Scotland and Guernsey) A small, usually soft and flaky bread, generally made with baking soda, which is similar in texture to a scone but which is usually not sweet.
(UK, Philippines) A cracker.
cheese and biscuits
water biscuits
digestive biscuits
(nautical) The "bread" formerly supplied to naval ships, which was made with very little water, kneaded into flat cakes, and slowly baked, and which often became infested with weevils.
A form of unglazed earthenware.
- 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, p. 87:
  Charm'd by your touch, the kneaded clay refines, / The biscuit hardens, the enamel shines […] .
- 2004, Frank Hamer; Janet Hamer, The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques, 5th edition, London; Philadelphia, Penn.: A & C Black; University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 248:
  An overfired biscuit has insufficient porosity for glazing.
A light brown colour.
biscuit:
(woodworking) A thin oval wafer of wood or other material inserted into mating slots on pieces of material to be joined to provide gluing surface and strength in shear.
Synonyms: dowel, finger joint, glue strip, spline
(US, slang) A plastic card bearing the codes for authorizing a nuclear attack.
(US, slang, hiphop) A handgun, especially a revolver.
- 2007, Army of the Pharaohs (lyrics and music), “Bloody Tears”, in Ritual of Battle‎:
  I shoot my biscuit in the air until the sky is gone
(ice hockey, shuffleboard) A puck (hockey puck).
(slang) The head.
- 2012 April 2, Nicki Minaj (lyrics and music), “Beez in the Trap”, in Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded‎, track 4:
  Damn, damn, what they say about me?
  I don't know man, fuck is on your biscuit
- 2013 September 17, Jeezy featured by YG (lyrics and music), “My Nigga”, in My Krazy Life‎, track 7:
  Me and my down ass nigga get twisted
  Nigga get to trippin', knock the gravy out your biscuit
- 2019 October 4, Lil Tjay featured by Pop Smoke (lyrics and music), “War”, in Meet The Woo 2‎, track 13 0:47:
  Henny right here, I'ma sip it
  You try me, it's shots at your biscuit
- 2022 December 1, YOUNGESTSAV (lyrics and music), “District”, PressPlay, 0:26 and oftener:
  […] Risk it, you get slapped in your biscuit

Usage notes

In North America, a biscuit is a small, soft baked bread similar to a scone but not sweet. In some cases, it can be hard (see dog biscuit). In the United Kingdom, a biscuit is a small, crisp or firm, sweet baked good — the sort of thing which in North America is called a cookie. (Less frequently, British speakers refer to crackers as biscuits.) In North America, even small, layered baked sweets like Oreos are referred to as cookies, while in the UK, typically only those biscuits which have chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, or other things baked into them are also called cookies.
Throughout the English-speaking world, thin, crispy, salty or savoury baked breads like in this image (saltine crackers) are called crackers, while thin, crispy, sweet baked goods like in this image (Nilla Wafers) and this image (wafer sticks) are wafers.
Both the US and the UK distinguish crackers, wafers and cookies/biscuits from cakes: the former are generally hard or crisp and become soft when stale, while the latter is generally soft or moist and becomes hard when stale.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:biscuit.

Derived terms

Abernethy biscuit
air biscuit
Anzac biscuit
arse biscuit
bickie
biscotto
biscuit beetle
biscuit bomber
biscuit cutter
biscuit firing
biscuit hook
biscuit jointer
biscuitless
biscuitlike
biscuit root
biscuits and gravy
biscuit shooter
biscuit tin
biscuit ware
biscuit weight
biscuity
bisque
bite the biscuit
Bourbon biscuit
butter my butt and call me a biscuit
butter someone's biscuit
cathead biscuit
digestive biscuit
disco biscuit
dog biscuit
dry biscuit
fly biscuit
Graham biscuit
have the biscuit
Leary biscuit
make biscuits
Marie biscuit
meat biscuit
Naples biscuit
pilot biscuit
ratafia biscuit
rice biscuit
rich tea biscuit
risk it for the biscuit
sea biscuit
ship biscuit
shit biscuit
sledging biscuit
soda biscuit
soggy biscuit
take the biscuit
water biscuit
what do you want, a biscuit
whisker biscuit
wine biscuit

Descendants

Tok Pisin: bisket
→ Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (bhica.kwat)
→ Cebuano: biskwit
→ Fiji Hindi: biskut
→ Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ (biskiṭ)
→ Hausa: bìskît
→ Hebrew: ביסקוויט‎ (bískvit)
→ Hiligaynon: biskwit
→ Hindi: बिस्कुट (biskuṭ)
→ Indonesian: beskit, biskit
→ Japanese: ビスケット (bisuketto)
→ Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket)
→ Malay: biskut
→ Marshallese: petkōj
→ Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (biskuṭ)
→ Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid
→ Spanish: bísquet
→ Swahili: biskuti
→ Tagalog: biskuwit
→ Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt)
→ Zulu: bhisikidi

Translations

small, flat baked good — See also translations at cookie,‎ cracker

Afrikaans: biscuit
Albanian: biskotë (sq) m, galetë (sq) f
Apache:
Western Apache: báń łikane
Arabic: بَسْكَوِيت‎ (ar) m (baskawīt)
Egyptian Arabic: بسكويتة‎ f (baskawita), بسكويت‎ m pl (baskawit), بسكوت‎ m pl (baskut), كحك‎ m (kaḥk)
Gulf Arabic: بسكوت‎ m (baskūt)
Hijazi Arabic: بسكوت‎ m (biskōt)
Moroccan Arabic: بسكوي‎ m (biskwi)
Armenian: թխվածք (hy) (tʿxvackʿ), պեչենի (pečʿeni)
Azerbaijani: biskvit
Basque: galleta (eu)
Belarusian: пе́чыва n (pjéčyva), пячэ́нне n (pjačénnje)
Bengali: বিস্কুট (biskuṭ)
Breton: gwispidenn (br)
Bulgarian: суха́р (bg) f (suhár), бискви́та (bg) f (biskvíta)
Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (my) (bhica.kwat), ဆိတ်နို့မုန့် (my) (hcitnui.mun.)
Catalan: galeta (ca) f, bescuit (ca) m
Chickasaw: paska
Chinese:
Cantonese: 餅乾, 饼干 (beng² gon¹)
Mandarin: 餅乾／饼干 (zh) (bǐnggān)
Czech: sušenka (cs)
Danish: kiks (da) c
Dutch: biscuit (nl) ?, koekje (nl) ?
Esperanto: kringo, biskvito, kekso (eo)
Estonian: biskviit
Finnish: keksi (fi)
French: biscuit (fr) m
Galician: biscoito (gl) m
Georgian: ორცხობილით (orcxobilit)
German: Keks (de) m or n
Greek: μπισκότο (el) m (biskóto)
Ancient: δίπυρος m (dípuros)
Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ ? (biskiṭ)
Hebrew: בִּיסְקְוִיט / ביסקוויט‎ (he) m (biskvít)
Hindi: बिस्कुट (hi) m (biskuṭ)
Icelandic: kex (is) n
Ido: bisquito (io)
Indonesian: biskit, biskuit (id)
Irish: briosca (ga) m
Italian: biscotto (it) m, biscottino (it) m
Japanese: ビスケット (ja) (bisuketto), クッキー (ja) (kukkī)
Kazakh: піспенан (pıspenan)
Khmer: នំដុត (num dot)
Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket), 쿠키 (ko) (kuki), 비스킷 (biseukit)
Kyrgyz: печенье (ky) (peçenʹye)
Lao: ຂະຫນົມປັງ (kha nom pang)
Latin: copta f, tractum (la) m
Latvian: biskvīts m
Ligurian: beschéutto m
Lithuanian: biskvitas m
Luxembourgish: Kichelchen (lb) m
Macedonian: кекс m (keks), бискви́т m (biskvít)
Malay: biskut (ms)
Maltese: gallettina f
Manx: biskee f, brishtag f
Maori: pihikete
Mongolian: хатсан талх (xatsan talx)
Nauruan: beitker
Navajo: bááh nímazí
Norwegian: kjeks (no) m, småkake m
Persian: بیسکوئیت‎ (biskuit)
Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (pa) m (biskuṭ)
Polish: ciastko (pl) n, herbatnik (pl) m
Portuguese: biscoito (pt) m
Romanian: biscuit (ro) m
Russian: пече́нье (ru) n (pečénʹje), бискви́т (ru) m (biskvít) (foreign countries)
Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: бѝсквӣт m, ке̏кс m
Roman: bìskvīt (sh) m, kȅks (sh) m
Sicilian: viscottu (scn) m
Slovak: sušienka f
Slovene: piškot (sl) m
Spanish: galleta (es) f
Swahili: biskuti (sw) class 9/10
Swedish: kex (sv) n
Tagalog: biskwit
Tajik: кулча (kulča), печен'е (pečen'e)
Tamil: பிஸ்கோத்து (ta) (piskōttu), பிஸ்கெட் (piskeṭ)
Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt), ขนมปังกรอบ (kà-nǒm-bpang-grɔ̀ɔp)
Turkish: bisküvi (tr)
Turkmen: köke
Ukrainian: пе́чиво n (péčyvo)
Uyghur: پېچىنە‎ (pëchine)
Uzbek: pechenye (uz)
Vietnamese: bánh quy (vi)
Walloon: biscûte (wa) f
Welsh: bisgeden (cy) f, bisgïen (cy) f
Zulu: bhisikidi ?

small bread similar to scone

Chickasaw: paska
Esperanto: kekso (eo), biskvito, skono, paneto
Finnish: teeleipä (fi)
Latin: bucellātum m
Spanish: hallulla (es)
Swedish: tekaka (sv) c
Welsh: bara deugras m

cracker — see cracker

ship's "bread"

Bulgarian: суха́р (bg) m (suhár)
Catalan: bescuit (ca) m
Danish: beskøjt c
Esperanto: marbiskvito
Finnish: laivakorppu
French: biscuit (fr) m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: kjeks (no) m, beskøyter m
Russian: гале́та (ru) f (galéta)

form of earthenware

Bulgarian: неглази́рана кера́мика f (neglazírana kerámika)
Finnish: bisque
French: biscuit (fr) m
Malay: biskut (ms)
Romanian: biscuit (ro) m
Spanish: biscocho m, bizcocho (es) m

light brown colour

Finnish: vaaleanruskea (fi)
Polish: biszkoptowy (pl)

woodworking: wafer to provide gluing surface

Finnish: liitospala, keksi (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} biskvito

French

Etymology

From Old French bescuit, from bescuire, equivalent to bis- +‎ cuit, or from Medieval Latin biscoctus, from Latin bis (“twice”) coctus (“cooked”). Compare Italian biscotto, Spanish bizcocho, Portuguese biscoito. May be decomposed as bis +‎ cuit.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bis.kɥi/
audio (file)

Noun

biscuit m (plural biscuits)

biscuit (cookie)

Derived terms

biscuit chinois
biscuiter
biscuiterie
biscuit sablé
fendre son biscuit
tremper son biscuit

Descendants

→ Arabic: بَسْكَوِيت‎ (baskawīt)
→ Azerbaijani: biskvit
→ Bulgarian: бискви́та (biskvíta)
→ Dutch: biscuit, → Dutch: beschuit
→ Esperanto: biskvito
- → Ido: bisquito
→ Estonian: biskviit
→ Indonesian: biskuit
→ Italian: biscuit
→ Latvian: biskvīts
→ Lithuanian: biskvitas
→ Macedonian: бискви́т (biskvít)
→ Moroccan Arabic: بسكوي‎ (biskwi)
→ Persian: بیسکوئیت‎ (biskuit)
→ Romanian: biscuit
→ Russian: бискви́т (biskvít)
→ Serbo-Croatian: бѝсквӣт, bìskvīt
→ Turkish: bisküvi
→ Vietnamese: bích quy

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French biscuit. Doublet of biscotto.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /biˈskwi/^°, /biˈskwi/^*
Rhymes: -i

Noun

biscuit m (invariable)

biscuit (white earthenware)
wafer (for ice cream)

Anagrams

cubisti

Romanian

Alternative forms

biscot (dated)

Etymology

Borrowed from French biscuit. Doublet of pișcot, which came from Hungarian.

Noun

biscuit m (plural biscuiți)

biscuit, cookie
biscuit (white earthenware)

Declension

Declension of biscuit

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) biscuit	biscuitul	(niște) biscuiți	biscuiții
genitive/dative	(unui) biscuit	biscuitului	(unor) biscuiți	biscuiților
vocative	biscuitule		biscuiților

biscuit

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Usage notes

Quotations

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

French

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Anagrams

Romanian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Noun

Declension

See also

Further reading