Dictionary Definition
wafer
Noun
1 a small adhesive disk of paste; used to seal
letters
2 a small thin crisp cake or cookie
3 thin disk of unleavened bread used in a
religious service (especially in the celebration of the
Eucharist)
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
-
- Rhymes: -eɪfə(r)
Noun
- a light, thin, flat biscuit.
- a thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread used in communion.
- a thin disk of silicon or other semiconductor on which an electronic circuit is produced.
Synonyms
- (religion): host
Translations
biscuit
religious token
electronics
Italian
Etymology
Noun
wafer- wafer (biscuit and electronic component)
Extensive Definition
In cooking, a wafer is a crisp, sweet, very thin,
flat, and dry cake, often
used to decorate ice cream.
Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring
sandwiched between them. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may
also be patterned with insignia of the food's manufacturer or may
be patternless.
The word also refers to the special small round flat breads made for
Anglican
Holy
Communion services; the word host
is used in the Roman
Catholic liturgy.
These holy wafers often
have an image of the crucified Christ imprinted on
them.
In the spa towns of the Slovak
Republic (e.g. Piešťany,
etc.) special "spa wafers" (kúpeľné oplátky) are produced.
In the spa towns of the Czech
Republic (e.g. Karlovy
Vary,
Mariánské Lázně, etc.) special "spa wafers" (lázeňské oplatky)
are produced.
Christmas
wafers, whose patterns often depict religious scenes, are an
Eastern
European Roman
Catholic Christmas
tradition celebrated in Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and
Italian
families during Wigilia (Christmas
Eve Vigil).
See also
References
wafer in German: Oblate (Gebäck)
wafer in Japanese: ウエハース
wafer in Polish: opłatek
wafer in Russian: Вафля
wafer in Swedish: oblat
wafer in Hebrew: ופלה
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Brussels biscuit, Communion, Eucharist, Holy Communion,
Host, Last Supper, Melba
toast, Sacrament Sunday, altar bread, biscuit, bread, bread and wine, coat, coating, collop, consecrated bread,
consecrated elements, consubstantiation,
covering, cracker, cut, deal, disk, elements, feuille, film, flap, foil, fold, graham cracker, gruel, hardtack, impanation, intinction, lamella, lamina, laminated glass,
laminated wood, lap,
lath, leaf, loaf, membrane, mere shadow, pane, panel, paper, patina, peel, pellicle, pilot biscuit,
plait, plank, plate, plating, ply, plywood, pretzel, rail, rake, rasher, real presence, rusk, safety glass, saltine, scum, sea biscuit, shadow, shaving, sheet, ship biscuit, sinker, skeleton, skin, slab, slat, slice, slip, soda cracker, soup, splinter, streak, subpanation, table, tablet, the Holy Sacrament, the
Sacrament, transubstantiation,
vein, veneer, zwieback