biscuits

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of biscuit.

   A plate of warm biscuits sat in the middle of the breakfast table.

   The soldiers carried hard biscuits that kept for months on the march.

   Note

   A regular plural, but which biscuits arrive at the table depends on where you are. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand they are small baked goods, crisp or firm, much like American cookies. In the US they are soft, flaky, scone-like breads raised with baking soda and rarely sweet; Canada knows both. The hard biscuits of soldiers and sailors were different again: rations made with very little water and slowly baked.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of biscuit.

   The joiner biscuits the tabletop panels before clamping them together.

   This jig biscuits two boards in seconds, lining up the slots automatically.

   Note

   It has the same spelling as the plural noun, but here it is a verb, and it is used in two quite different ways. In pottery it is transitive: a potter biscuits a batch of bowls, firing them in the kiln without glaze, which leaves them as the unglazed earthenware the noun names. In New Zealand it is intransitive and means riding a river on an inner tube, so someone simply biscuits, with no object.

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