Biscuit: Twice Cooked, and Two Different Foods
A biscuit in Britain is a small crisp baked sweet; in the United States it is a soft savoury roll. The name means twice cooked, which fits only one of them.
Biscuit is the classic transatlantic trap. To a British reader it is thin, crisp and often sweet, dunked in tea. To an American it is soft, warm and served with gravy. The word means twice cooked, and only the British sort still earns the name.
- A small crisp baked sweet (British). *A packet of chocolate biscuits.*
- A soft savoury roll (American). *Biscuits and gravy.*
- Unglazed pottery. *Biscuit porcelain.*
- Something outstanding, in takes the biscuit. *That really takes the biscuit.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | biscuit | A ginger biscuit. |
| Plural | biscuits | Tea and biscuits. |
| US equivalent | cookie | A chocolate chip cookie. |
| Adjective | biscuity | A biscuity aroma. |
| Compound | biscuit tin | Keep them in the biscuit tin. |
How it is used in a sentence
- He dunked a biscuit in his tea.Dunking is a national habit and a common collocation.
- Southern biscuits are best served hot.The American food, quite unlike the British one.
- Charging for the tap water really takes the biscuit.British idiom for the most outrageous example.
Biscuit, cookie, cracker and scone
- Biscuit (UK) — crisp, usually sweet, often eaten with tea
- Cookie (US) — soft or chewy and always sweet; in Britain a cookie is a specific soft biscuit
- Cracker — crisp and savoury, eaten with cheese
- Scone — a soft plain cake, closest in texture to the American biscuit
From Old French *bescuit*, from Latin *bis coctus*, twice cooked. Ship's biscuit was baked twice to drive out moisture so it would survive months at sea, and the name outlived the practice.
Does takes the biscuit mean something good?
Almost always the opposite. It marks the most outrageous item in a run of bad ones. Americans say takes the cake.
Why is unglazed pottery called biscuit?
Because it has been fired once and awaits a second firing — the same twice-cooked idea as the food.