[F.: see prec.]
1. Entom. A membrane (resembling a drum-head) in certain insects, as the cicada, by means of which a shrill chirping sound is produced.
1854. Bushnan, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), I. 295/1. [In the cicada] the muscles … act upon the timbales, stretching them out or bringing them into their natural state, whereby the sounds are produced.
1867. J. Marshall, Outlines Physiol., I. 271. The noises in certain species [of insects], are dependent on the rapid movements of folded membranes, called the timbales,… moved by contraction and relaxation of special bands of parallel muscular fibres.
2. Cookery. A dish made of finely minced meat, fish, or other ingredients, cooked in a crust of paste or in a mold: so called from its shape.
1860. Daily National Democrat (Marysville, CA), 24 Oct., 3/3. ‘Timbale of rice, devil manner.’
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 25. Eating her last morsel of a truffled timbale.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 16 Sept., 1/3. ‘If I could only have a little sweetbread timbale,’ she said longingly.
1908. Daily Chron., 10 April, 7/5. Chicken Timbales with Sauce.
3. Comb. timbale-iron, a cooking utensil with a bulging head used to form a cup-shaped crust.
1895. in Funk’s Stand. Dict.
