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.
From his bedroom window, Mr. Matallana-Puerto saw that the brown rat accounted for 88 percent of all animal visits to feijoa flowers.
From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2022
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
The rats arrived from Europe, likely hundreds of years ago as a result of colonization; the feijoa trees spread northward from their native Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
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
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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.