greengage

American  

[green-gayj] / ˈgrinˌgeɪdʒ /

noun

1. any of several varieties of light-green plums, as Prunus insititia italica.

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greengage British  

/ ˈɡriːnˌɡeɪdʒ /

noun

1. a cultivated variety of plum tree, Prunus domestica italica, with edible green plumlike fruits

2. the fruit of this tree

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Etymology

Origin of greengage

1715–25; green + Gage, after Sir William Gage, 18th-century English botanist who introduced such varieties from France circa 1725

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

greengage

He once wrote about asking for the local guava jelly in one of Trinidad's intellectual clubs, only to be told that they only had English greengage jam.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the tree which I was most pleased to find was a plum, with ripe fruit about the size of a small greengage, but of a beautiful pale rose-colour.

From Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine by Edward Harrison Barker

At the farm of our nearest neighbors, the Edwardses, there were five greengage trees that bore delicious plums.

From A Busy Year at the Old Squire's by C. A. (Charles Asbury) Stephens

Marguerite caught the greengage as neatly as it was thrown.

From Roden's Corner by Henry Seton Merriman

At least one fruit, the greengage, is named from a person, Sir William Gage, a gentleman of Suffolk, who popularised its cultivation early in the 18th century.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Ernest Weekley

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