piquant

comparative more piquant · superlative most piquant · alternative piquante

1. archaicCausing hurt feelings; scathing, severe.First known use 16th c.
2. Stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming.First known use 17th c.

   Their husbands […] leave home to seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant French word, piquant society […]

   1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC

   1 more example

   He looked after her as she retreated, with a fondness which was rendered more piquant, as it were, by the mixture of a certain scorn which accompanied it.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 55, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

3. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.First known use 17th c.

   French charcuterie relies on cloves in the quatre épices, or four-spice powder, for seasoning fine sausages and piquant marinades.

   2009, Sara Engram with Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe, The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 9

   2 more examples

   Pork Chops with Apple and Port These chops are baked in a piquant sauce containing fruit, honey, cinnamon, lemon and port, all of which reduces to a spicy syrup.

   2000, Lynn Bedford Hall, The Best of Cooking in South Africa, 2nd edition, Cape Town: Struik Publishers, →ISBN, page 103

   Elsewhere in South America, excepting Bahia in Brazil, one does not encounter piquant cuisine, although one may stumble on a piquant dish now and then […]

   2005, Clifford A. Wright, Some Like it Hot: Spicy Favorites from the World's Hot Zones, Boston, Mass.: Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 170

4. Producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot.