blancmange

plural blancmanges · alternative blanc manger · alternative blanc-manger · alternative blancmanger

1. countableuncountableA simple dessert made by cooking sweetened milk with cornstarch and vanilla.

   “That looks too pretty to eat,” he said, smiling with pleasure, as Jo uncovered the dish, and showed the blanc-mange

   1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableSomething soft, weak, and wobbly.

   2 more examples

   I was a snarler. I prided myself on being a snarler. I would go to great lengths to avoid stereotypical feminine behaviour. I thought that in being outrageous or out of control, which I viewed as synonymous, I was thumbing my nose at the patriarchy. My biggest fear about AA was that I would lose my edge. Turn into blancmange.

   2010, Kate Jennings, Trouble: Evolution of a Radical: Selected Writings 1970-2010, page 36

   Yet the shootout was only part of the story against tough, obdurate opponents – “animals” according to Chris Waddle in his radio commentary – on a night when Colombia’s supporters had filled this stadium in swathes of bright yellow, bouncing and swaying like human blancmange and creating a raucous din.

   2018 July 3, Daniel Taylor, “England knock Colombia out of World Cup in last-16 penalty shootout”, in The Guardian

3. countablehistoricaluncountableA dish, eaten in the Middle Ages, generally consisting of chicken (or sometimes capon or fish), milk or almond milk, rice, and sugar.

   Chaucer's Cook made blancmange with the best of them, according to the Prologue to the Tales. There were two versions of this popular dish in Chaucer's day, one made with fish and the other with capon or chicken.

   2011, Annette Hope, Londoners' Larder: English Cuisine from Chaucer to the Present, →ISBN