Noun

• A small sponge cake, shaped approximately like a finger.
• A type of small banana.
• Synonym of okra: the plant or its edible capsules.
• A variety of small firecracker.

Synonyms

• (small sponge cake): lady’s finger, savoiardi biscuit, sponge finger

Exemple

• Ladyfingers soaked in liqueur are the base of tiramisu, but I suppose you could just cut up a sponge cake instead.
• Grandpa would give each of the kids a strip of ladyfingers to light on New Year’s Day.

Noun

• A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
• (figurative) Something which brings back a memory; a source of nostalgia or evocative memories.

Examples

• And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray […] my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane.
• Madeleine batter can be made in advance and refrigerated.
• The Robe was thus fixed in my mind as a symbol, and in my memory as a madeleine, of Jewish evil.
• Every five years or so, in the middle of another task, I’ll look at them and a particular cover will bring memory flooding back like a madeleine.