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fruit

[ froot ]

/ frut /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR fruit ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural fruits, (especially collectively) fruit.

any product of plant growth useful to humans or animals.

the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents and accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, or pineapple.

the edible part of a plant developed from a flower, with any accessory tissues, as the peach, mulberry, or banana.

the spores and accessory organs of ferns, mosses, fungi, algae, or lichen.

anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return or profit: the fruits of one's labors.

Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a male homosexual.

verb (used with or without object)

to bear or cause to bear fruit: a tree that fruits in late summer; careful pruning that sometimes fruits a tree.

VIDEO FOR FRUIT

WATCH NOW: Are These Foods Fruits, Vegetables, Or Berries?

How can we know what is a fruit? A vegetable? A berry? A nut? Doesn't it seem like it's always changing? Why is it so confusing?

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QUIZZES

DO YOU KNOW THIS VOCABULARY FROM "THE HANDMAID'S TALE"?

"The Handmaid's Tale" was required reading for many of us in school. Everyone else has probably watched the very popular and addictive TV show. Do you remember this vocabulary from the book, and do you know what these terms mean?

Question 1 of 10

decorum

the act of or need for making up one's mind.

dignified propriety of behavior, speech, dress, etc.

a company of singers, especially an organized group employed in church service.

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Origin of fruit

1125–75; Middle English < Old French < Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, equivalent to frūg-, variant stem of fruī to enjoy the produce of + -tus suffix of v. action

OTHER WORDS FROM fruit

fruit·like, adjective

Words nearby fruit

frug, frugal, frugality, frugivore, frugivorous, fruit, fruit bat, fruit beer, fruit body, fruit cocktail, fruit cup

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for fruit

Once I even got a Durian—Asian fruit notorious for smelling like a sweaty sock—which did not make me popular that month.
Tales of a Jailhouse Gourmet: How I learned to Cook in Prison|Daniel Genis|June 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
Van Dyke Parks on How Songwriters Are Getting Screwed in the Digital Age|Van Dyke Parks|June 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He was eating the meal on which he would play—steak, peas, lettuce, fruit jello, and tea.
Gordie Howe Hockey’s Greatest War Horse|W.C. Heinz|May 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Instead, go for things that give you energy in a more sustained way, like fruit,” says Kennedy.
Short on Zzz’s? 15 Research-Backed Sleep Hacks|DailyBurn|May 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST

This is the first time the Vatican calls us for help, which is a good start and the fruit of what they are doing there.
Vatican Hustle: Con Men No Longer Welcome in the Holy See|Tom Kington|March 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The fruit of the blue grape is sour and hangs in long, heavy clusters.
On the Trail|Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard
There is a great profusion of fruit, the apples yielding a kind of cider which, however, does not keep longer than a month.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 7|Various
The breadfruit trees and coconut trees at this time were full of fruit.
A Voyage to the South Sea|William Bligh
When cakes or fruit are sent into the playroom, he helps his guests all round before he touches any himself.
The Bad Family and Other Stories|Mrs. Fenwick
How he had planned, dug, planted it; pruned his fruit trees; placed his anemones in leaf-mould, his bulbs on sand.
Christmas Roses and Other Stories|Anne Douglas Sedgwick

British Dictionary definitions for fruit

fruit

/ (fruːt) /

noun

botany the ripened ovary of a flowering plant, containing one or more seeds. It may be dry, as in the poppy, or fleshy, as in the peach

any fleshy part of a plant, other than the above structure, that supports the seeds and is edible, such as the strawberry

the specialized spore-producing structure of plants that do not bear seeds

any plant product useful to man, including grain, vegetables, etc

(often plural) the result or consequence of an action or effort

British old-fashioned, slang chap; fellow: used as a term of address

slang, mainly British a person considered to be eccentric or insane

slang, mainly US and Canadian a male homosexual

archaic offspring of man or animals; progeny

verb

to bear or cause to bear fruit

Derived forms of fruit

fruitlike, adjective

Word Origin for fruit

C12: from Old French, from Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, from frūī to enjoy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for fruit

fruit

[ frōōt ]

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 fruit multiple fruit simple 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 squash-all fruits in the eyes of a botanist-as vegetables.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cultural definitions for fruit

fruit

In botany, the part of a seed-bearing plant that contains the fertilized seeds capable of generating a new plant (see fertilization). Fruit develops from the female part of the plant. Apples, peaches, tomatoes, and many other familiar foods are fruits.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Idioms and Phrases with fruit

fruit

see bear fruit; forbidden fruit.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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