viand

plural viands

1. archaicAn item of food.

   1 more example

   There was a time, when all the bodies members / Rebell'd againſt the Belly; thus accus'd it: / That onely like a Gulfe it did remaine / I'th midd'ſt a th'body, idle and vnactiue, / Still cubbording the Viand, neuer bearing / Like labour with the reſt, where th'other Inſtruments / Did ſee, and heare, deuiſe, inſtruct, walke, feele, / And mutually participate, did miniſter / Vnto the appetite; […]

   1613, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act I, scene i, pages 1–2

2. archaicA choice dish.

   The Motier and Lepelletier tables still groan with viands; roofs ringing with patriotic toasts.

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)

   2 more examples

   They are said to celebrate there every returning spring a great nocturnal festival. On the sod at its brink is spread a table-cloth white as the driven snow, covered with the most delicious viands.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 432

   [H]is heart swelled within him, as he sat at the head of his own table, on the occasion of the house-warming, dispensing with no niggard hand the gratuitous viands and unlimited beer, which were at once to symbolise and inaugurate the hospitality of his mansion.

   1852, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, William and Robert Chambers

   Synonyms: delicacy

3. Philippinesrice topping; any food eaten with rice as a part of a main course meal.