French bean

American  

noun

1. British. the pod of a green bean or wax bean, eaten as a vegetable.

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French bean British  

noun

1. a small twining bushy or annual bean plant, Phaseolus vulgaris , with white or lilac flowers and slender green edible pods

2. the pod of this plant See also haricot

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Etymology

Origin of French bean

First recorded in 1545–55

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

French bean

A half-dwarf, French bean, similar in habit to the Dwarf Sabre.

From The Field and Garden Vegetables of America Containing Full Descriptions of Nearly Eleven Hundred Species and Varietes; With Directions for Propagation, Culture and Use. by Fearing Burr

The kidney bean, French bean, or haricot is the Phaseŏlus vulgāris, a well-known culinary vegetable.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

The humour of Mr Gilbert's line "The not too French French bean" appeals irresistibly to the English.

From Our Stage and Its Critics By "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette" by Edward Fordham Spence

Gilbert, again, in Patience has a reference to "a not-too-French French bean" that suggests a ribald estimate of this family of plants.

From The Pleasures of Ignorance by Robert Lynd

Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your languid spleen, An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not- too-French French bean!

From The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Sir W. S. (William Schwenck) Gilbert

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