mayonnaise

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A dressing made from vegetable oil, raw egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice, and seasoning, used on salads, with french fries, in sandwiches etc.

   “There are 250 foods, including mayonnaise, cheese and cocoa, that don't list ingredients at all.”

   “The FDA's original intent for foods included under "standards of identity" ensured that terms like "mayonnaise" or "ice cream” would guarantee the same basic ingredients required in the government-established recipe no matter who manufactured it.”

   “I grew up thinking that the blue and white Miracle Whip salad dressing jar in the fridge held the same substance the rest of the world knew as mayonnaise. / Now I know that mayonnaise is something entirely different.”

   “The oils in store-bought mayonnaise range from olive oil to sunflower oil to safflower oil and some less desirable oils!”

   “Most store-bought mayonnaise contains ingredients (vinegar, lemonjuice, and salt) that actually slow bacterial growth”

2. (countable, uncountable)Any cold dish with that dressing as an ingredient.

   “We served a lobster mayonnaise as a starter.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Any cream, for example for moisturizing the face or conditioning the hair, for which the base is egg yolks and oil.

   “hair mayonnaise”

   “facial mayonnaise”

   “They include cider vinegar, two pre-shampoo products, shampoo, conditioner, hair mayonnaise, oil, leave-in conditioner, end protector, revitalising styling spray and filtered water.”

   “Then I implemented a lighter protein conditioner – such as hair mayonnaise, which I learned about from my cousin Renee – for the off weeks. I used this hidden gem in combination with olive oil (yes, I bought a kitchen bottle of olive oil – the same kind my grandmother used in every single delicious dish she ever cooked – strictly for use in my hair).”

4. (Australia, countable, informal, uncountable)Exaggeration.

   “Rancey and our coach, Damien Hardwick, still both joke that "Dimma" tried to off-load him for a sixpack of beers and a bucket of chips in his first few years, but I think they both put some mayonnaise on the story these days.”

   “If he had a reputation among supporters of playing for free kicks he wasn't aware of it and no one from the AFL or coaches spoke to him specifically about changing his style. But he admits, he would "put some mayonnaise" on top of what defenders had done to him to ensure the umpires were aware of what was happening.”

5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)In full Mayonnaise sauce or sauce Mayonnaise: alternative letter-case form of mayonnaise.

   “The reader who may have a prejudice against the unboiled eggs which enter into the composition of the Mayonnaise, will find that the most fastidious taste would not detect their being raw, if the sauce be well made; […] Abroad, boiled asparagus is very frequently served cold, and eaten with oil and vinegar, or a sauce Mayonnaise.”

   “A cold roast fowl, Mayonnaise sauce No. 468, 4 or 5 young lettuces, 4 hard-boiled eggs, a few water-cresses, endive. Mode.—Cut the fowl into neat joints, lay them in a deep dish, piling them high in the centre, sauce the fowl with Mayonnaise made by recipe No. 468, and garnish the dish with young lettuces cut in halves, water-cresses, endive, and hard-boiled eggs: […]”

   “Divided into flakes and nicely seasoned with pepper, salt, and fragrant herbs, it will make a good Mayonnaise for supper or luncheon. […] When ready to serve, pour over the fowl some Mayonnaise sauce. […] Make some Mayonnaise or tartare sauce (see page 214).”

   “For fried fish the perfection of accompaniments is the sauce Tartare—a mere addition of some capers, shallots, parsley, and pickles to the sauce Mayonnaise. […] For a chicken or a lobster salad, learn unquestionably the sauce Mayonnaise. […] For chicken and fish salads, and some vegetables, as tomatoes and cauliflowers, they [epicures] use the Mayonnaise''' sauce. This arrangement of dressings is almost universal in London and Paris. In America we use the Mayonnaise for all salads.”

verb

1. (transitive)To cover or season with mayonnaise.

   “Jones himself presided in the kitchen, mincing truffles, mayonnaising lobster, booting waiters out the door with tray after tray of steaming savories and teeth-numbing sweets, […]”

   “I thought of mayonnaising her racket handle or substituting it for sunblock, but decided against it.”