rasher

• enPR: răsh'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈɹæʃə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃə(ɹ)

rash +‎ -er.

rasher

1. comparative form of rash: more rash

Unknown origin. Said to be an alteration of rasure.

rasher (plural rashers)

1. (UK, Ireland) A strip of bacon; a piece of bacon.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 44, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He was a man who made his tent comfortable wherever he pitched it, and long before Altamont’s arrival, had done justice to a copious breakfast of fried eggs and broiled rashers, which Mr. Grady had prepared secundum artem.

   • 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes‎, Wikisource:

     He received us in his quietly genial fashion, ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     He toasted his bacon on a fork and caught the drops of fat on his bread; then he put the rasher on his thick slice of bread, and cut off chunks with a clasp-knife, poured his tea into his saucer, and was happy.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[III]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Would you like a bite of something? None of your damned lawdeedaw airs here. The rich of a rasher fried with a herring?

   • 2010 March 25, “Put to the test: Back rashers”, in Irish Independent:

     Thick-cut, thin-cut or flavoured, sometimes there is nothing nicer than a rasher on toast or a crispy rasher as part of a full fry up.

2. (UK, Ireland) A strip, a piece (of something, such as ham, bacon, etc).
   • 1874, John Charles Buckmaster, Buckmaster's Cookery: Being an Abridgment of Some of the Lectures Delivered in the Cookery School at the International Exhibition for 1873 and 1874 : Together with a Collection of Approved Recipes and Menus, page 172:

     Now another layer of forcemeat, then rashers of ham, then forcemeat. Cover the surface with three rashers of fat bacon and a bayleaf; cover with paste, and bake for two hours in a moderate oven, covering the top with a piece of […]

   • 1896, Henry Davenport Northrop, Joseph R. Gay, Irvine Garland Penn, The College of Life Or Practical Self: A Manual of Self-improvement for the Colored Race ... Giving Examples and Achievements of Successful Men and Women of the Race ... Including Afro, page 622:

     “A pound of tea at one-and-three, / And a pot of raspberry jam, Two new-laid eggs, a dozen pegs, / And a pound of rashers of ham.”

   • 1916, Royal Society of Medicine (Great Britain), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, page 54:

     On March 24 : For breakfast - cocoa, two rashers of bacon, 2 oz. of dry oatmeal, and 1 oz. of cream. For dinner - 2 oz. of cooked meat, […]

   • 1989 May 1, Thomas Wolfe, Francis E. Skipp, The Complete Short Stories Of Thomas Wolfe, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 203:

     We could see the circus performers eating tremendous breakfasts, with all the savage relish of their power and strength: they ate big fried steaks, pork chops, rashers of bacon, a half dozen eggs, great slabs of fried ham and great […]

   • 2017 February 16, Sarah Randell, A Pot of Marmalade: The ultimate guide to making and cooking with marmalade, Saltyard Books, →ISBN:

     12 rashers of British smoked dry-cured streaky bacon

   • (Can we date this quote?), Joe Romanoski, Michelle Randell, The Farborough Scare, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 76:

     Reggie pulls out a rasher of beef jerky from his back pocket and pulls off a bite with a distinct “Snap!” He then sits down next to Siggy, opposite the two girls.

• collop
• slice
• strip

rasher (third-person singular simple present rashers, present participle rashering, simple past and past participle rashered)

1. (transitive) To cut into rashers.
   • 1956, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Papers by command, volume 26, page 26:

     Most of the bacon sold is rashered or prepared as boiling joints in the retail shop, but recently there have been experiments in central arrangements for rashering bacon and its subsequent distribution pre-packed.

• Harers, Herras, Sharer, rehras, sharer