aspic

plural aspics

1. countableuncountableA meat or fish jelly.

   “Put a little aspic in the mould, so as to cover the bottom ···“

   1819, Frederick Nutt, Nutt, F. (1819). The Imperial and Royal Cook. Consisting of the Most Sumptuous Made Dishes ... Including the Latest Improvements in Fashionable Life. 2nd Ed. United Kingdom: Samuel Leigh: Baldwin, Cradock; Joy. - p.265

2. countableuncountableA dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatine, jelly-like substance made from a meat stock or consommé.

   "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Wynand," whispered Keating. His eyes fixed upon the tomato aspic on his salad plate; it was soft and shivering; it made him sick.

   1943, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 441

3. countableobsoletepoeticuncountableAn asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.

   This is an aspic's trail: and these fig-leaves / Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   1 more example

   (With that she tore her robe apart, and half / The polished argent of her breast to sight / Laid bare. Thereto she pointed with a laugh, / Showing the aspic's bite. )

   1833, Lord Alfred Tennyson, A Dream of Fair Women

4. countableobsoleteuncountableA light cannon firing a two-pound ball.

1. not comparableAspish; relating to an asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.

   Timeless mother, / How is it that your aspic nipples / For once vent honey?

   1923, Wallace Stevens, “In the Carolinas”, in Harmonium, Faber and Faber, published 2001, →ISBN, page 3