Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A light, soft-textured sweetened biscuit.
  • noun Sweet raised bread dried and browned in an oven.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of light, hard cake or bread, as for ships' stores.
  • noun Bread or cake dried and browned in the oven, and reduced to crumbs by pounding, the crumbs being usually eaten with milk.
  • noun A kind of light cake; a kind of soft, sweetened biscuit.
  • To make rusk of; convert, as bread or cake, into rusk. See rusk, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of light, soft bread made with yeast and eggs, often toasted or crisped in an oven; or, a kind of sweetened biscuit.
  • noun A kind of light, hard cake or bread, as for stores.
  • noun Bread or cake which has been made brown and crisp, and afterwards grated, or pulverized in a mortar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a rectangular, hard, dry biscuit
  • noun a twice-baked bread, slices of bread baked until they are hard and crisp (also called a zwieback)
  • noun a weening food for children
  • noun a cereal binder used in meat product manufacture

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun slice of sweet raised bread baked again until it is brown and hard and crisp

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish or Portuguese rosca, coil, bread ring, of unknown origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Spanish or Portuguese rosca ("a twist or roll of bread")

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Examples

  • In front of Mrs. Minister stood a very large yellow bowl filled with what she called rusk -- a preparation unfamiliar to me, made by browning and crushing the crusts of bread and then rolling them down into a coarse meal.

    The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment David Grayson 1908

  • Just now her rusk was the all-absorbing topic of thought.

    St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, July 1878, No. 9 Various 1868

  • Not only had he most intelligently brought me a fresh ice, but he had brought the particular kind of rusk for which I had asked.

    Your United States Impressions of a first visit Arnold Bennett 1899

  • Oliver's Channel 4 series, Jamie's School Dinners, exposed Matthews's Twizzlers as consisting largely of water, rusk, pork fat and coating, with only one third of "mechanically recovered" turkey meat in the recipe.

    Marco Pierre White's secret plan to steal Jamie Oliver's school dinner thunder 2011

  • Her suggestions include Consommé à l'Estragon, the whites of a couple of eggs whisked into it at the last moment; Natural Meat Jelly, served on a rusk; and, for a main course, a "fresh or slightly pickled tongue" or perhaps a mixed grill, starring mutton cutlets, or devilled game.

    How can I lose weight when I like eating? 2010

  • Walls is Walls and unpretentious but with quite a high rusk content.

    A New Leicestershire Landmark Peter Ashley 2008

  • My hands shook, no doubt from strain and also from weakness–we had been eating a rusk a day for four days…but our column was fresh from Leningrad and we had seen people starving to death.

    Sealing Their Fate David Downing 2009

  • The exposed crust is rusk-like crunchy in nice contrast to the soft, creamy custard-soaked bread in the center.

    Tomato Bread Pudding IV ♥ | A Veggie Venture 2005

  • But here it was on Pico, sitting scooped on a rusk of croissant: airy froth with just a mellow afterthought of coffee flavor.

    C&C: La Maison du Pain tannaz 2006

  • But here it was on Pico, sitting scooped on a rusk of croissant: airy froth with just a mellow afterthought of coffee flavor.

    Archive 2006-11-01 tannaz 2006

Comments

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  • Not to be confusied with russk, which is what Russkies eat.

    October 11, 2008

  • cf. biscotti, cantucci, and Zwieback.

    January 4, 2009

  • Just learned this term from Namibian Olympic Cyclist Dan Craven (@DanfromNam) who apparently livetweeted the race he was racing??

    https://twitter.com/DanFromNam/status/761983418309672962

    His profile as of Aug 6, 2016: "Dad dancer, Cyclist, Olympian TWICE, I'm like a rusk on a cloudy morning. Cycling Academy Team - @bikegeeeeks"

    August 6, 2016