# doughnut

Pronunciation: say "DOH-nut" UK /ˈdəʊˌnʌt/, US /ˈdoʊˌnʌt/

## Noun

1. A portion of dough or batter, typically sweetened and flavoured, deep-fried and commonly formed into a ring or into a flattened ball with a filling of jam, custard or cream.
   - Simple: A sweet fried cake, often shaped like a ring or a ball filled with jam or cream.
   - _He dunked his doughnut in his tea and got sugar all down his chin._
   - _The bakery on the high street sells custard doughnuts until they run out at lunchtime._
2. Any object in the form of a thick, rounded ring with a hole through its centre.
   - Simple: Anything in the shape of a fat ring with a hole through the centre.
   - _Seen from above, the new stadium is an enormous concrete doughnut._
   - _She rolled the towel into a doughnut and rested her neck on it._
3. A circle of skid marks left by spinning a vehicle round on the spot, or the spin that makes them.
   - Simple: A tight circle a driver makes by spinning a car round, or the round tyre marks it leaves.
   - _The winning driver celebrated with a smoking doughnut at the finish line._
   - _Someone had been doing doughnuts on the school field, leaving muddy rings all over the grass._
4. A person who acts foolishly or stupidly. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A silly person who has done something stupid.
   - _You've locked the keys in the car again, you doughnut!_
   - _Only a couple of doughnuts would try to cross the river in flip-flops._
5. A ring-shaped hair accessory used to shape the hair into a bun.
   - Simple: A ring you put around your hair to help you make a bun.
   - _Spread your hair evenly over the doughnut, then pin the bun in place._
   - _Ballet teachers often recommend hair doughnuts for a neat, tight bun._
6. A ring-shaped cushion for sitting on, used mainly by people with haemorrhoids.
   - Simple: A cushion shaped like a ring, often used by people with piles (a painful problem in the bottom).
   - _The pharmacist suggested a foam doughnut to make the long drive more bearable._
   - _He sat gingerly on his inflatable doughnut through the whole wedding._
8. A spare tyre for a car that is smaller than a normal one, usually carried in the boot and fitted only as a temporary measure.
   - Simple: A small spare tyre, usually kept in the boot, that you only use for a short time.
   - _Don't drive on the doughnut any further than you have to._
   - _Many new cars come with a doughnut instead of a full-sized spare._
9. A life raft in the form of a round ring.
   - Simple: A round raft in the shape of a ring, used to keep people safe in the water.
   - _The crew threw a doughnut life raft over the side the moment the engine caught fire._
   - _Two survivors clung to a doughnut life raft until the lifeboat reached them._
11. The female external genitals, and from that, a woman's virginity. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude slang word for a woman's outer sex organs, or for her virginity.
12. A swollen anus whose outer edge forms a ring; by extension, any anus. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude slang word for the opening in a person's bottom, especially a swollen, ring-shaped one.

## Proper noun · Doughnut

7. An informal name for the head office of GCHQ, the British government agency, in Cheltenham. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: An informal name for the main building of GCHQ, a British government office, in the town of Cheltenham.
   - _She went to work at the Doughnut straight after university and never talked about her job._
   - _Thousands of staff pass through the Doughnut's gates every morning._

## Verb

10. To surround someone or something, especially by clustering round a speaker to make them appear well supported.
   - Simple: To gather round someone or something, often to make a speaker look well supported.
   - _Loyal MPs doughnut the minister whenever the cameras are on._
   - _As he spoke, he was doughnutted by a crowd of cheering supporters._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A ring-shaped vacuum chamber, especially one used in a particle accelerator.
- (noun) In musicians' slang, a semibreve (whole note).
- (noun) A type of tyre fitted to the wheels of an aeroplane.

## Origin

Made from dough and nut. The word turns up in American writing from the early 1800s; Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809) is one early example. Perhaps the name first described small balls of fried dough about the size of a nut, though it is more likely that nut is used in an older sense, a small round cake or biscuit.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/doughnut (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).