civey

C3I1V4E1Y4
/ˈsɪvi/

noun

A kind of chive sauce served with game or seafood.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

nouncivey (uncountable)

alternative civy

  1. archaicuncountableA kind of chive sauce served with game or seafood.

    White leeks, beef pasties, ducks and chines, hares and coneys in civey, a geneste (p. 174) of larks, great joints.

    2006, Eileen Power, editor, The Goodman of Paris (Le Ménagier de Paris): A Treatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by a Citizen of Paris, C.1393, page 151
    2 more examples

    In the kitchens the famous cooks were preparing menus which included, for one course alone: ballock broth, caudle ferry, lampreys en gelatine, oysters in civey, eels in sorré, baked trout, brawn in mustard, numbles of a hart, pigs farsed [...].

    1940, TH White, The Ill-Made Knight

    Were there served, as in former times, a wine of Grenache and roasts, veal pasties, pimpernel pasties, black pudding and sausages, hares in civey and cutlets, pea soup, salt meat and great joints, a soringue of eels and other fish...

    1954, Austryn Wainhouse, Hedyphagetica, page 132

Origin

  1. Old Frenchcivé
  2. Middle Englishcyvee
  3. Englishcivey

From Middle English cyvee, from Old French civé; equivalent to chive + -ey.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

civey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/civey

MLA

“civey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/civey. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “civey,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/civey.

Source: civey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.