pawpaw
Americannoun
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pawpaws
plural
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a tree, Asimina triloba, of the annona family, native to the eastern United States, having large, oblong leaves and purplish flowers.
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the fleshy, edible fruit of this tree.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pawpaw
First recorded in 1620–30; unexplained variant of papaye “papaya”; see papaya
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.
See Examples For:
Finger limes, pomelos, pawpaw and sapote, to name a handful.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
He went from standard citrus, apricot and avocado to a more exotic collection, adding finger limes, valentine pummelos, jaboticaba, cherimoya and pawpaw.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
Growers and processors can use this pulp for a variety of pawpaw products, to which consumers have responded favorably.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
People have experimented with pawpaw ice cream, beer, salsa, jams, dressings, and baked goods — some with great success.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
I walked through tall grasses up a sandbank to a stand of pawpaw trees with clusters of fruit and climbed up the thickest trunk.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Fryar, who wrote a book about the Potomac after discovering its hidden wilds, plans to stop foraging for pawpaws and a leafy green called sochan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
A 2008 study found that storing the fruit around 40 degrees Fahrenheit can preserve pawpaws for about four weeks, but anything longer leads to poor quality.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
In the meantime, researchers have attempted to identify color breaks in existing pawpaws.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
Indeed, as more researchers begin to study pawpaws — focusing on agroforestry, food science, and operations management — other entities continue to push the crop.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
Mawuli came alongside her and lowered his head, and she took out two huge orange pawpaws.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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.
