| / English Dictionary |
CORDIAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Strong highly flavored sweet liquor usually drunk after a meal
Synonyms:
cordial; liqueur
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("cordial" is a kind of...):
alcohol; alcoholic beverage; alcoholic drink; inebriant; intoxicant (a liquor or brew containing alcohol as the active agent)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cordial"):
sambuca (an Italian liqueur made with elderberries and flavored with licorice)
ratafee; ratafia (sweet liqueur made from wine and brandy flavored with plum or peach or apricot kernels and bitter almonds)
pousse-cafe (small drink served after dinner (especially several liqueurs poured carefully so as to remain in separate layers))
Pernod ((registered trademark) a liqueur flavored with anise)
pastis (similar to absinthe but containing no wormwood)
maraschino; maraschino liqueur (distilled from fermented juice of bitter wild marasca cherries)
kummel (liqueur flavored with caraway seed or cumin)
orange liqueur (liqueur flavored with orange)
Galliano (golden Italian liqueur flavored with herbs)
Drambuie (a sweet Scotch whisky liqueur)
creme de fraise (strawberry-flavored liqueur)
creme de menthe (sweet green or white mint-flavored liqueur)
creme de cacao (sweet liqueur flavored with vanilla and cacao beans)
coffee liqueur (coffee-flavored liqueur)
Chartreuse (aromatic green or yellow liqueur flavored with orange peel and hyssop and peppermint oils; made at monastery near Grenoble, France)
benedictine (a French liqueur originally made by Benedictine monks)
anisette; anisette de Bordeaux (liquorice-flavored usually colorless sweet liqueur made from aniseed)
amaretto (an Italian almond liqueur)
absinth; absinthe (strong green liqueur flavored with wormwood and anise)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Diffusing warmth and friendliness
Example:
a genial host
Synonyms:
affable; amiable; cordial; genial
Classified under:
Similar:
friendly (characteristic of or befitting a friend)
Derivation:
cordiality (a cordial disposition)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Sincerely or intensely felt
Example:
a cordial abhorrence of waste
Classified under:
Similar:
sincere (open and genuine; not deceitful)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Politely warm and friendly
Example:
a cordial handshake
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
warm (psychologically warm; friendly and responsive)
Derivation:
cordiality (a cordial disposition)
Context examples:
But the captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest worthy Shropshire man, observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advising me to take a little rest, of which I had great need.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Her assurance, however, standing sole as it did, was not thrown away; it brought a more cordial, more natural smile into his countenance, and he replied in a tone which retained only a little affected reserve: We were much obliged to you at any rate for wishing us a pleasant walk after our passing you in Argyle Street: you were so kind as to look back on purpose.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
"He is a man," said Lady Russell, "whom I have no wish to see. His declining to be on cordial terms with the head of his family, has left a very strong impression in his disfavour with me."
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
It also touched her, and she showed that it did, by the cordial tone in which she said...
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It was like her cordial voice in my ears.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The ease of his manner freed me from painful restraint: the friendly frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She was received with a cordial respect which could not but please, and given all the consequence she could wish for.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
But my feelings are not only cordial towards him; they are even impartial towards Miss King.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
And as it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second: for a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet, but not to vend them about for cordials.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Her sister, however, still sanguine, was willing to attribute the change to nothing more than the fatigue of having sat up to have her bed made; and carefully administering the cordials prescribed, saw her, with satisfaction, sink at last into a slumber, from which she expected the most beneficial effects.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
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