Definitions

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

  • noun A gutter or groove in a roof.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Broth of boiled meat strained.
  • noun In architecture: A gutter in a roof. Any channel or groove in which an accessory, as a side scene in a theater, is to run.

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

  • noun obsolete A strong broth of meat, strained and made clear for invalids; also, a savory jelly.
  • noun (Arch.) A gutter in a roof; a channel or groove.

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

  • noun architecture A gutter in a roof; a channel or groove.

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

  • noun a gutter in a roof

Etymologies

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

[Middle English colis, from Old French coleis, channel, from coler, to pour, from Latin cōlāre, to filter, from cōlum, sieve.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French coulisse groove, from the same source as English cullis broth.

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Examples

  • I care not, though, like Anacharsis, I were pounded to death in a mortar: and yet that death were fitter for usurers, gold and themselves to be beaten together, to make a most cordial cullis for the devil.

    The White Devil 2007

  • I care not, though, like Anacharsis, I were pounded to death in a mortar: and yet that death were fitter for usurers, gold and themselves to be beaten together, to make a most cordial cullis for the devil.

    The White Devil 2007

  • At length, they came to a metal gate, not unlike the port - cullis in a castle.

    Second Skin Lustbader, Eric 1995

  • English cookbook writers routinely condemned them and routinely included cullis recipes in their own books.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • Put the butter and flour in the saucepan and put it back over the heat; cook and stir until the flour has taken on a rich golden color, but do not push it too far over a great heat, for fear the cullis will develop a scorched flavor.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • Put the butter and flour in the saucepan and put it back over the heat; cook and stir until the flour has taken on a rich golden color, but do not push it too far over a great heat, for fear the cullis will develop a scorched flavor.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • The word “cullis” is typical of the way the French language was dealt with by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English speakers.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • English cookbook writers routinely condemned them and routinely included cullis recipes in their own books.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • The word “cullis” is typical of the way the French language was dealt with by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English speakers.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • Then another noise blended with them as die mighty port - cullis of Hwamgaart's main gate squealed upwards and from it poured a host of well-aimed men.

    Storm Bringer Moorcock, Michael 1963

Comments

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  • "Intensely reduced, this broth also formed the thick cullises, used to drench pyramids of labour-intensive and highly flavoured meat dishes. It was partly this cullis, requiring hours of work and endless ingredients to make, that gave the French style its reputation as overblown and expensive. Cullises were not the juicy by-products of cooking meat but intricate and expensive undertakings all of their own."

    --Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 165

    January 16, 2017