ketchup

plural ketchups · alternative catchup · alternative catsup · alternative katsup · alternative obsolete katjap · alternative obsolete kechap · alternative obsolete ketsup

1. CanadaUKUSabbreviationellipsisuncountableEllipsis of tomato ketchup (“a tomato-vinegar-based sauce, sometimes containing spices, onion or garlic, and (especially in the US) sweeteners”).

   tomato ketchup

   1 more example

   This diner serves ketchup in red bottles, and mustard in yellow ones.

   Synonyms: tomato catsup

2. archaiccountableSuch a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes, but with mushrooms, fish, etc.). This is the older meaning.

   To accompany meat, we prepare fruit ketchups and rhubarb chutney.

   2003, Inns and Bed and Breakfasts in Quebec 2003, Ulysses Travel Guides, page 46

   1 more example

   The bottles, however, were port bottles, but contained mushroom ketchup; […]

   1883, Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, page lxxxiii

present singular third person ketchups · participle present ketchupping · participle past ketchupped · past ketchupped · alternative catchup · alternative catsup · alternative katsup · alternative obsolete katjap · alternative obsolete kechap · alternative obsolete ketsup

1. transitiveTo cover with ketchup.

   It strikes me she's "ketchupped" the lot! I won't touch a morsel!

   1867, John Maddison Morton, Aunt Charlotte's maid: a farce in one act

   2 more examples

   "Well," said Chuck, ketchupping his hamburger, "I'd rather do without King Lear than put up with the human agony it sprang out of. I'd rather not have the Eroica than have the big bloody conqueror it tries to immortalize."

   1973, Horizon, page 15

   Their fellow diners, like their ketchupped grub, were appropriately dashed and splattered with paint and plaster, reading their Suns and Daily Mirror.

   2009, David Silverman, Twinkle, page 4