The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
n. A glazed, ring-shaped roll with a tough, chewy texture, made from plain yeast dough that is dropped briefly into nearly boiling water and then baked.
n. A toroidal bread roll that is boiled before it is baked.
n. A score of 6-0 in a set (after the shape of a bagel, which looks like a zero).
n. An overly materialistic and excessively groomed young man.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. a glazed leavened doughnut-shaped roll with a hard crust.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. (Yiddish) glazed yeast-raised doughnut-shaped roll with hard crust
Word Usage
"The best place I know to get a bagel is the Bagel Hole in Brooklyn (7th Ave between 12th and 13th Sts), where the bagels are small, dense, moist, and chewy."