mi·gnon·ette

(mĭn′yə-nĕt′)

1. Any of several Mediterranean plants of the genus Reseda, especially R. odorata, widely cultivated for its dense racemes of small fragrant greenish flowers.

2. A sauce of vinegar, pepper, and minced shallots, usually served with oysters.

[French, from feminine of mignonnet, dainty, pretty, from Old French, diminutive of mignon, lover, dainty.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mignonette

(ˌmɪnjəˈnɛt)

1. (Plants) any of various mainly Mediterranean plants of the resedaceous genus Reseda, such as R. odorata (garden mignonette), that have spikes of small greenish-white flowers with prominent anthers

2. (Textiles) a type of fine pillow lace

adj

(Colours)

a. of a greyish-green colour; reseda

b. (as modifier): mignonette ribbons.

[C18: from French, diminutive of mignon]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mi•gnon•ette

(ˌmɪn yəˈnɛt)

n.

any plant belonging to the genus Reseda, of the family Resedaceae, esp. R. odorata, having clusters of small, fragrant, greenish white flowers with prominent orange anthers.

[1690–1700; < French; see minion, -ette]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

mignonette - Mediterranean woody annual widely cultivated for its dense terminal spikelike clusters greenish or yellowish white flowers having an intense spicy fragrance

Reseda odorata, sweet reseda

genus Reseda - Old World genus of herbs having racemose flowers: mignonette; dyer's rocket

reseda - any plant of the genus Reseda

Translations

mignonette

[ˌmɪnjəˈnet] N → reseda f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

mignonette

n → Reseda f, → Resede f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Then, suddenly, as he rested there, the room was filled with the strong, sweet odour of mignonette. It came as upon a single buffet of wind with such sureness and fragrance and emphasis that it almost seemed a living visitant.

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Perhaps you would also like some mignonette? Mignonette it shall be if only you will write to inform me of everything in detail.

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"There's a lot o' mignonette an' poppies," he said.

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All eleven were to have been carpeted with purple pansies, but finding that I had not enough and that nobody had any to sell me, only six have got their pansies, the others being sown with dwarf mignonette. Two of the eleven are filled with Marie van Houtte roses, two with Viscountess Folkestone, two with Laurette Messimy, one with Souvenir de la Malmaison, one with Adam and Devoniensis, two with Persian Yellow and Bicolor, and one big bed behind the sun-dial with three sorts of red roses (seventy-two in all), Duke of Teck, Cheshunt Scarlet, and Prefet de Limburg.

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And I have some boxes, both of mignonette and wall- flower, that I could shove on along the gutter (with a boathook I have by me) to your windows, and draw back again when they wanted watering or gardening, and shove on again when they were ship- shape; so that they would cause you no trouble.

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Mrs Sparkler, lying on her sofa, looking through an open window at the opposite side of a narrow street over boxes of mignonette and flowers, was tired of the view.

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"Dear Violet is not the only one who will leave us," sobbed little Mignonette; "the rose mother will fade like her little bud, and we shall lose our gentlest teacher.

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Beth had old-fashioned fragrant flowers in her garden, sweet peas and mignonette, larkspur, pinks, pansies, and southernwood, with chickweed for the birds and catnip for the pussies.

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The largest was a regular hothouse bouquet, of tea-rosebuds, scentless heath, and smilax; the second was just a handful of sweet-peas and mignonette, with a few cheerful pansies, and one fragrant little rose in the middle; the third, a small posy of scarlet verbenas, white feverfew, and green leaves.

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Alice Reade, coming through the trees, with the wind blowing her little dark love- locks tricksily about under her wide blue hat, found a fragrant heap of mignonette under the pine.

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There's the same mignonette box in the middle of the window, and the same four flower-pots, two on each side, that I brought with me when I first came.

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If the weather is dark and cloudy, she is depressed; she 'weeps when the sky is weeping,' a phrase of her own; she sings with the birds; she grows happy and serene under a cloudless sky; the loveliness of a bright day passes into her face; a soft sweet perfume is an inexhaustible pleasure to her; I have seen her take delight the whole day long in the scent breathed forth by some mignonette; and, after one of those rainy mornings that bring out all the soul of the flowers and give indescribable freshness and brightness to the day, she seems to overflow with gladness like the green world around her.

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