生地
Meanings
Cooking and baking use; often appears in compounds or phrases such as パン生地, ピザ生地, and ケーキの生地.
Let the bread dough rise for an hour.
Pour the cake batter into the pan.
inherent quality; true character; true colours
Refers to what a person or thing is like underneath outward presentation. This use is less common than the fabric and dough senses and can sound somewhat literary or old-fashioned.
Her unpretentious way of speaking shows her good natural character.
unprocessed base material; unglazed pottery; uncoated metal
Technical or craft use for a surface or body before finishing, glazing, coating, or painting. In ceramics it can mean unglazed pottery; in metalwork it can mean bare, uncoated metal.
Glaze is applied to the unglazed pottery body before firing.
Polish the bare metal clean before painting.
bare skin; skin with no make-up
A limited beauty or appearance-related use for skin before make-up or other covering; in everyday speech, 素肌 or すっぴん is usually more natural.
In beauty contexts, there is an expression meaning make-up that makes use of the skin as it is.
Usage patterns
- 〈物〉の生地を選ぶto choose the fabric for something (clothing, curtains, etc.)
It took a long time to choose the fabric for this dress.
- 生地を伸ばすto roll out dough
Roll out the bread dough with a rolling pin.
- 〈人〉の生地が出るfor someone's true nature to show through
When he gets drunk, his true nature shows.
- 生地を裁つto cut fabric (in tailoring or sewing)
I cut the fabric according to the pattern.
- 生地を発酵させるto let dough ferment or rise
Let the dough rise before baking the bread.