Definitions

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

  • adjective Conforming to dietary laws; ritually pure.
  • adjective Observing dietary laws.
  • adjective Selling or serving food prepared in accordance with dietary laws.
  • adjective Informal Legitimate; permissible.
  • transitive verb To make proper or ritually pure.
  • idiom (keep kosher) To observe Jewish dietary laws.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pure; clean; lawful; conforming to the requirements of the Talmud: used by Hebrews: as, kosher bread, kosher meat, etc.: opposed to tref.
  • To make ‘kosher,’ or ceremonially correct.

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

  • adjective Ceremonially clean, according to Jewish law; -- applied to food, esp. to meat of animals slaughtered according to the requirements of Jewish law. Opposed to tref. For food to be officially kosher, it must be certified fit to eat by a Rabbi, according to Jewish ritual law.
  • adjective colloq. Proper; seemly; appropriate; legitimate.
  • adjective colloq. Genuine.
  • transitive verb To prepare in conformity with the requirements of the Jewish law, as meat.
  • noun Kosher food; also, a kosher shop.
  • noun the practise of adherence to the Jewish ritual law; used mostly in the phrase keep kosher, v. i..
  • noun To adhere to the rules for eating only kosher food and handling it properly.

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

  • adjective of food Prepared in accordance with Jewish religious practices.
  • adjective figuratively, by extension In accordance with standards or usual practice.
  • verb transitive to make kosher.

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

  • adjective conforming to dietary laws
  • adjective proper or legitimate
  • noun food that fulfills the requirements of Jewish dietary law

Etymologies

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

[Yiddish kosher, from Ashkenazi Hebrew kóšer, from Hebrew kāšēr, fitting, proper, from kāšēr, to be fitting, to succeed; see kṯr in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Yiddish כּשר (kosher), from Hebrew כָּשֵׁר (kashér).

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