Cookie

Cookie: Food Item

In the US, a small, flat baked cake. It can be baked until crisp or only long enough that it stays soft, depending on the type of cookie. Some types of cookies are:

Chocolate chip cookies (see Toll House Cookie)
Ginger snaps
Oreos

Cookies are called biscuits in the UK and Australia. A cookie cutter is a tool to stamp out cookie dough in a particular shape. A cookie cutter solution is a solution to a problem that can be applied in many situations without modification. Mrs. Field's Original Cookies is a chain of franchise stores in the US that specializes in fresh cookies.

Cookie: Data token

In computer programming, a magic cookie or cookie is a token or short packet of data passed between communicating programs, where the data is typically not meaningful to the recipient program. The contents are opaque and not usually interpreted until the recipient passes the cookie data back to the sender or perhaps another program at a later time. The cookie is often used like a ticket - to identify a particular event or transaction. An HTTP cookie is a type of magic cookie.

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.