potato

[puh-tey-toh, -tuh]

See more synonyms for potato on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural po·ta·toes.

Also called Irish potato, white potato. the edible tuber of a cultivated plant, Solanum tuberosum, of the nightshade family.
the plant itself.
sweet potato(defs 1, 2).

Origin of potato

1545–55; < Spanish patata white potato, variant of batata sweet potato < Taino

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

Related Words for potatoes

yam, spud, tuber, plant, murphy, tater

Examples from the Web for potatoes

Contemporary Examples of potatoes

However, that switch to potatoes occurred around the 19th Century.
I Ate Potato Pancakes Til I Plotzed
Emily Shire
December 17, 2014
Mixing meat and dairy is a kosher rule-breaker, so they switched the cheese for potatoes.
I Ate Potato Pancakes Til I Plotzed
Emily Shire
December 17, 2014
I must have had lamb and potatoes 180 times since I have been here.
Why The Queen Hates Mobile Phone Waving Crowds
Tom Sykes
September 2, 2014
On busier roads, elderly, scarved women sat by piles of potatoes and onions hoping forlornly for a sale.
As the Key Battle Looms, a Report from Ukraine's Front Lines
Jamie Dettmer
August 13, 2014
This breakfast is 100 percent chocolate all the way down to the potatoes.
Epic Meal Empire’s Meat Monstrosities: From the Bacon Spider to the Cinnabattleship
Harley Morenstein
July 26, 2014

Historical Examples of potatoes

Cook the potatoes and onions in the water until they are soft.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
(a) To what may the high food value of potatoes be attributed?
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 2
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
This is suitable for any meal at which potatoes would be served.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 2
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
They must serve for potatoes and they have to furnish our meat.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
Then after the bog and the potatoes, came funerals and holidays innumerable.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)
Maria Edgeworth

British Dictionary definitions for potatoes

potato

noun plural -toes

Also called: Irish potato, white potato
1. a solanaceous plant, Solanum tuberosum, of South America: widely cultivated for its edible tubers
2. the starchy oval tuber of this plant, which has a brown or red skin and is cooked and eaten as a vegetable
any of various similar plants, esp the sweet potato
hot potato slang a delicate or awkward matter

Word Origin for potato

C16: from Spanish patata white potato, from Taino batata sweet potato

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 potatoes

potato

1560s, from Spanish patata, from a Carib language of Haiti batata "sweet potato." Sweet potatoes were first to be introduced to Europe; in cultivation in Spain by mid-16c.; in Virginia by 1648. Early 16c. Portuguese traders carried the crop to all their shipping ports and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java.

The name later (1590s) was extended to the common white potato, from Peru, which was at first (mistakenly) called Virginia potato, or, because at first it was of minor importance compared to the sweet potato, bastard potato. Spanish invaders in Peru began to use white potatoes as cheap food for sailors 1530s. The first potato from South America reached Pope Paul III in 1540; grown in France at first as an ornamental plant. According to popular tradition, introduced to Ireland 1565 by John Hawkins. Brought to England from Colombia by Sir Thomas Herriot, 1586.

German kartoffel (17c.) is a dissimilation from tartoffel, ultimately from Italian tartufolo (Vulgar Latin *territuberem), originally "truffle." Frederick II forced its cultivation on Prussian peasants in 1743. The French is pomme de terre, literally "earth-apple;" a Swedish dialectal word for "potato" is jordpäron, literally "earth-pear."

Colloquial pronunciation tater is attested in print from 1759. Potato chip (n.) attested from 1879. To drop (something) like a hot potato is from 1824. Children's counting-out rhyme that begins one potato, two potato first recorded 1885 in Canada. Slang potato trap "mouth" attested from 1785.

Idioms and Phrases with potatoes

potato

see hot potato; meat and potatoes; small beer (potatoes).