pitahaya
Americannoun
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any of several cacti of the genus Selenicereus and related genera, of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America, bearing edible round or oval fruit usually having scaly skin and sweet pulp filled with seeds.
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the fruit of any of several cacti of the genus Selenicereus and related genera.
noun
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any giant cactus of Central America and the SW United States, esp the saguaro
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Also called: dragon fruit. the edible red pulpy fruit of such cacti, which has a mild sweet flavour
Etymology
Origin of pitahaya
An Americanism first recorded in 1750–60; from Latin American Spanish, from Taíno
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.
We plucked the pears of the pitahaya, and ate them greedily; we found service-berries, yampo, and roots of the “pomme blanche.”
From The Scalp Hunters by F.A. Stewart
The small river was Bill Williams Fork, and on striking it Onate began to see the remarkable pitahaya adorning the landscape with its tall, stately columns; and all the strange lowland vegetation followed.
From The Romance of the Colorado River The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh
On one side of the glade, where the ground was dry and sandy, there stood a small clump of pitahaya cactus.
From The White Chief A Legend of Northern Mexico by L. Evans
Follow the sahuaro and the pitahaya into the tropics again, and with their cousin, the organ cactus, you will find them growing a soft thorn that would hardly penetrate clothing.
From Under the Maples by John Burroughs
Fruit they find too on several species of cactus; the best of them on the pitahaya, whose tall rigid stems, with limbs like the branches of a candelabrum, tower up around their camp.
From The Lost Mountain A Tale of Sonora by Mayne Reid
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
