fruit

fruit  (frt)

n. pl. fruit or fruits

1.

a. The ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant, together with accessory parts, containing the seeds and occurring in a wide variety of forms.

b. An edible, usually sweet and fleshy form of such a structure.

c. A part or an amount of such a plant product, served as food: fruit for dessert.

2. The fertile, often spore-bearing structure of a plant that does not bear seeds.

3. A plant crop or product: the fruits of the earth.

4. Result; outcome: the fruit of their labor.

5. Offspring; progeny.

6. A fruity aroma or flavor in a wine.

7. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a homosexual man.

intr. & tr.v. fruit·ed, fruit·ing, fruits

To produce or cause to produce fruit.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin frctus, enjoyment, fruit, from past participle of fru, to enjoy.]

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fruit

Noun

1. any fleshy part of a plant that supports the seeds and is edible, such as the strawberry

2. Bot the ripened ovary of a flowering plant, containing one or more seeds

3. any plant product useful to man, including grain and vegetables

4. fruits the results of an action or effort, esp. if pleasant: they have enjoyed the fruits of a complete victory

Verb

to bear fruit [Latin fructus enjoyment, fruit]

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fruit  (frt)

The ripened ovary of a flowering plant that contains the seeds, sometimes fused with other parts of the plant. Fruits can be dry or fleshy. Berries, nuts, grains, pods, and drupes are fruits. Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries alone, such as the tomato and pea pod, are called true fruits. Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries and other parts such as the receptacle or bracts, as in the apple, are called accessory fruits or false fruits. See also aggregate fruitmultiple fruitsimple fruit, See Note at berry.

Usage To most of us, a fruit is a plant part that is eaten as a dessert or snack because it is sweet, but to a botanist a fruit is a mature ovary of a plant, and as such it may or may not taste sweet. All species of flowering plants produce fruits that contain seeds. A peach, for example, contains a pit that can grow into a new peach tree, while the seeds known as peas can grow into another pea vine. To a botanist, apples, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, pea pods, cucumbers, and winged maple seeds are all fruits. A vegetable is simply part of a plant that is grown primarily for food. Thus, the leaf of spinach, the root of a carrot, the flower of broccoli, and the stalk of celery are all vegetables. In everyday, nonscientific speech we make the distinction between sweet plant parts (fruits) and nonsweet plant parts (vegetables). This is why we speak of peppers and cucumbers and squashall fruits in the eyes of a botanistas vegetables.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	fruit - the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant edible fruit - edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh juniper berry - berrylike fruit of a plant of the genus Juniperus especially the berrylike cone of the common juniper reproductive structure - the parts of a plant involved in its reproduction May apple - edible but insipid fruit of the May apple plant achene - small dry indehiscent fruit with the seed distinct from the fruit wall gourd - any of numerous inedible fruits with hard rinds prairie gourd - small hard green-and-white inedible fruit of the prairie gourd plant blue fig, quandong - the fruit of the Brisbane quandong tree acorn - fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base olive - small ovoid fruit of the European olive tree; important food and source of oil rose hip, rosehip, hip - the fruit of a rose plant wild cherry - the fruit of the wild cherry tree marasca - small bitter fruit of the marasca cherry tree from whose juice maraschino liqueur is made hagberry - small cherry much liked by birds chokecherry - the fruit of the chokecherry tree rowanberry - decorative red berrylike fruit of a rowan tree buffalo nut, elk nut, oil nut - oily drupaceous fruit of rabbitwood capitulum, spike, ear - fruiting spike of a cereal plant especially corn fruitlet - a diminutive fruit, especially one that is part of a multiple fruit seed - a small hard fruit berry - a small fruit having any of various structures, e.g., simple (grape or blueberry) or aggregate (blackberry or raspberry) aggregate fruit, multiple fruit, syncarp - fruit consisting of many individual small fruits or drupes derived from separate ovaries within a common receptacle: e.g. blackberry; raspberry; pineapple drupe, stone fruit - fleshy indehiscent fruit with a single seed: e.g. almond; peach; plum; cherry; elderberry; olive; jujube false fruit, pome - a fleshy fruit (apple or pear or related fruits) having seed chambers and an outer fleshy part seedpod, pod - a several-seeded dehiscent fruit as e.g. of a leguminous plant pyxidium, pyxis - fruit of such plants as the plantain; a capsule whose upper part falls off when the seeds are released accessory fruit, pseudocarp - fruit containing much fleshy tissue besides that of the ripened ovary; as apple or strawberry buckthorn berry, yellow berry - fruit of various buckthorns yielding dyes or pigments cubeb - spicy fruit of the cubeb vine; when dried and crushed is used medicinally or in perfumery and sometimes smoked in cigarettes schizocarp - a dry dehiscent fruit that at maturity splits into two or more parts each with a single seed
	2.	fruit - an amount of a product yield product, production - an artifact that has been created by someone or some process; "they improve their product every year"; "they export most of their agricultural production"
	3.	fruit - the consequence of some effort or action; "he lived long enough to see the fruit of his policies" aftermath, consequence - the outcome of an event especially as relative to an individual
Verb	1.	fruit - cause to bear fruit
	2.	fruit - bear fruit; "the trees fruited early this year" bear, turn out - bring forth, "The apple tree bore delicious apples this year"; "The unidentified plant bore gorgeous flowers"

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fruit

noun 1. Botany produce, crop, yield, harvest

noun 2. (often plural) result, reward, outcome, end result, return, effect, benefit, profit, advantage, consequence

Translations

fruit [fruːt] n (pl inv) → fruta

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fruit [fruːt] n (pl inv) → fruit m

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fruit [fruːt] n inv → Frucht f;

(collectively) → Obst nt (fig) (results) → Früchte pl

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fruit [fruːt] n (pl inv) → frutto;

(collectively) → frutta