Fruit
WordNet
noun
(1) An amount of a product
(2) The consequence of some effort or action
"He lived long enough to see the fruit of his policies"
(3) The ripened reproductive body of a seed plant
verb
(4) Bear fruit
"The trees fruited early this year"
(5) Cause to bear fruit
WiktionaryText
Etymology
fruit, fruits and vegetables, from fruit, from fructus, enjoyment, proceeds, profits, produce, income, a derivative of frui, to have the benefit of, to use, to enjoy, from ; cognate with Modern German brauchen, to use.
Noun
(see Usage notes for discussion of plural)
- The seed-bearing part of a plant, often edible, colourful/colorful and fragrant, produced from a floral ovary after fertilization.
- While cucumber is technically a fruit, one would not usually use it to make jam.
- Any sweet, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit, even if it does not develop from a floral ovary; also used in a technically imprecise sense for some sweet or sweetish vegetables, such as rhubarb, that resemble a true fruit or are used in cookery as if they were a fruit.
- Fruit salad is a simple way of making fruits into a dessert.
- A positive end result or reward of labour or effort.
- His long nights in the office eventually bore fruit, when his business boomed and he was given a raise.
- Offspring from a sexual union.
- The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.
- A homosexual or effeminate man.
Usage notes
- In the botanical and figurative senses, is usually treated as uncountable:
- a bowl of fruit; eat plenty of fruit; the tree provides fruit. is also sometimes used as the plural in the botanical sense:
- berries, achenes, and nuts are all fruits; the fruits of this plant split into two parts.
- When is treated as uncountable in the botanical sense, is often used as a singulative.
- In senses other than the botanical or figurative ones derived from the botanical sense, the plural is .
See also
:Category:Fruits for a list of fruits
- List of fruits in Wikipedia