feijoa
Americannoun
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a shrub, Feijoa sellowiana, of the myrtle family, native to South America, bearing edible, greenish, plumlike fruit.
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the fruit of this shrub.
noun
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an evergreen myrtaceous shrub, Feijoa sellowiana , of South America
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the fruit of this shrub
Etymology
Origin of feijoa
< New Latin (1858), after João da Silva Feijó (1760–1824), Brazilian soldier and naturalist; see -a 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The tale of rats and feijoa meeting in the city — and potentially elsewhere — is an unlikely love story: Neither is native to Colombia.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2022
In Colombia, the feijoa flowers are found in the tree canopy, without nectar or odor; instead, the rats feed on the petals and forage during the day when the flowers are open and fertile.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2022
Instead, the rodents brush against the scores of scarlet stamens, which carry the pollen that could then cling to the their fur coats until being transferred to another feijoa tree.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2022
To test his hypothesis, Mr. Matallana-Puerto did what any good naturalist would do: He watched and observed that the rats were attracted to feijoa plants.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2022
At 76, he likes to sit about knitting afghan squares; he makes popovers and feijoa jam at his modest home on the Palo Alto campus.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
