medlar

[med-ler]

noun

a small tree, Mespilus germanica, of the rose family, the fruit of which resembles a crab apple and is not edible until the early stages of decay.
any of certain related trees.
the fruit of any of these trees.

Origin of medlar

1325–75; Middle English medler < Anglo-French, equivalent to medle (Old French mesle the fruit < Latin mespilum < Greek méspilon) + -er -er²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for medlars

Historical Examples of medlars

Then let us leave off hanging ourselves and our children from its branches like medlars.
Fantasia of the Unconscious
D. H. Lawrence
Each of them carried some of the flesh of the kids, a dozen medlars, and a melon.
Hair-Breadth Escapes
H.C. Adams
There are quinces and medlars and plums with plenty of fruit, and Morello cherries; but few apples.
More Letters of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
If kept till they are soft, in the same way as medlars, they have an agreeable acid flavour.
Woodland Gleanings
Charles Tilt
In every hedge we passed were medlars, plumbs, cherries, and maples with vines trained to them.
Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808
Lt-Col. Pinkney

British Dictionary definitions for medlars

medlar

noun

a small Eurasian rosaceous tree, Mespilus germanica
the fruit of this tree, which resembles the crab apple and is not edible until it has begun to decay
any of several other rosaceous trees or their fruits

Word Origin for medlar

C14: from Old French medlier, from Latin mespilum medlar fruit, from Greek mespilon

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

Word Origin and History for medlars

medlar

"small fruit-bearing tree," mid-14c. (in reference to the fruit itself), from Old French medler, variant of mesple, from Latin mespila "fruit of the medlar," from Greek mespilion, a foreign word of unknown origin. The Old English name was openærs, literally "open-arse."

medlars in Medicine

MEDLARS

abbr.

Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (computerized index system of the US National Library of Medicine)