biscuit

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
biscuit/ˈbɪskɪt/

▶noun

• 1 Brit. a small, flat, crisp unleavened cake.

  ■ N. Amer. a small, soft round cake like a scone.

• 2 porcelain or other pottery which has been fired but not glazed.

• 3 a light brown colour.

• 4 Carpentry a small flat piece of wood used to join two larger pieces of wood together, fitting into slots in each.

– phrases
take the biscuit (or chiefly N. Amer. cake) informal be the most remarkable or foolish of its kind.

– derivatives
biscuity adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. bescuit, based on L. bis ‘twice’ + coctus, past part. of coquere ‘to cook’ (because biscuits were orig. cooked in a twofold process: first baked and then dried out in a slow oven).