raclette

noun

ra·​clette ra-ˈklet How to pronounce raclette (audio)
rä-
: a Swiss dish consisting of cheese melted over a fire and then scraped onto bread or boiled potatoes
also : the cheese used in this dish

Examples of raclette in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Its Otto burger has melty raclette cheese, thick-cut bacon, smoked tomato aioli, and red onion jam. Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 7 Mar. 2024 In Normandy, for example, people buy more Camembert in the summer; while in the Alps, Swiss cheese sells easily on cold winter days when raclette (a local dish) is on the menu in many homes. Sanne Wass, Fortune Europe, 22 Jan. 2024 In the evenings, the hotel puts together a local wine/meat/cheese event in the lounge, featuring raclette from the farm of Pascal Cordonnier, not five miles away. Devin Friedman, Travel + Leisure, 11 Nov. 2023 Take the Mortadella Pancake at Win Son Bakery, the more casual offshoot of East Williamsburg’s wonderful Taiwanese American restaurant Win Son, in which silk-thin slices of mortadella join a crêpe-like scrambled egg, melty raclette, and slivers of pickly hot peperoncini. Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2023 At this Taiwanese American spot in East Williamsburg, silk-thin slices of mortadella join a crêpe-like scrambled egg, melty raclette, and pickly hot peperoncini. The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2023 Over at the Swiss ambassador’s residence, at Time magazine’s soiree, a DJ played house and disco beats, and the sharp aroma of a raclette station drifted over the patio. Maura Judkis, Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2023 When guests order the raclette cheese menu at Alpino, chef Campbell explained, it’s served with its own special flat, spatula-like tool and a base that has tea light candles for melting the cheese. Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 1 May 2023 Splendid isolation Fondue and raclette are the warming comfort foods on the menu at the Princess Elisabeth polar research station in East Antarctica, the coldest region on Earth. Maureen O'Hare, CNN, 29 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'raclette.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, borrowed from Swiss French (Valais) (perhaps originally from a Franco-Provençal form), from racler "to scrape, even or clean by scraping" (going back to Middle French raicler, racler, borrowed from Old Occitan rasclar, going back to Vulgar Latin *rāsclāre, syncopated from *rāsiculāre, iterative from rāsus, past participle of rādere "to scrape, scratch, pare away, shave") + -ette, deverbal suffix marking place or object of an action; so called because the cheese was traditionally melted and scraped from a larger piece onto the other ingredients; as a name for a cheese, short for fromage à raclette — more at rase, -ette

First Known Use

circa 1949, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of raclette was circa 1949

Dictionary Entries Near raclette

Cite this Entry

“Raclette.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/raclette. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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