pastries

noun, plural pas·tries.

1. a sweet baked food made of dough, especially the shortened paste used for pie crust and the like.
2. any item of food of which such dough forms an essential part, as a pie, tart, or napoleon.

noun plural -tries

1. a dough of flour, water, shortening, and sometimes other ingredients
2. baked foods, such as tarts, made with this dough
3. an individual cake or pastry pie

n.mid-15c., “food made with paste,” not originally limited to sweets, from Middle English paste (see paste (n.)) + -ry. Probably influenced by Old French pastaierie “pastry” (Modern French pâtisserie), from pastoier “pastry cook,” from paste (see paste (n.)); also borrowed from Medieval Latin pasteria “pastry,” from Latin pasta. Specific sense of “small confection made of pastry” is from 1906. Pastry-cook attested from 1712.