Cheese (?), n. [OE. chese, AS. cēse, fr. L. caseus, LL. casius. Cf. Casein.]

1. The curd of milk, coagulated usually with rennet, separated from the whey, and pressed into a solid mass in a hoop or mold.

2. A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the form of a cheese.

3. The flat, circular, mucilaginous fruit of the dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia). [Colloq.]

"4. A low courtesy; -- so called on account of the cheese form assumed by a womans dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration.De Quincey. Thackeray."

Cheese cake, a cake made of or filled with, a composition of soft curds, sugar, and butter.Prior. -- Cheese fly(Zoöl.), a black dipterous insect (Piophila casei) of which the larvæ or maggots, called skippers or hoppers, live in cheese. -- Cheese mite (Zoöl.), a minute mite (Tryoglyhus siro) in cheese and other articles of food. -- Cheese press, a press used in making cheese, to separate the whey from the curd, and to press the curd into a mold. -- Cheese rennet(Bot.), a plant of the Madder family (Golium verum, or yellow bedstraw), sometimes used to coagulate milk. The roots are used as a substitute for madder. -- Cheese vat, a vat or tub in which the curd is formed and cut or broken, in cheese making.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913