greengage
Americannoun
noun
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a cultivated variety of plum tree, Prunus domestica italica, with edible green plumlike fruits
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the fruit of this tree
Etymology
Origin of greengage
1715–25; green + Gage, after Sir William Gage, 18th-century English botanist who introduced such varieties from France circa 1725
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.
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
Mode.—Roll the paste out thin; put half of it on a baking-sheet or tin, and spread equally over it apricot, greengage, or any preserve that may be preferred.
From The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton
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
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
And those syrups of fruit, the strawberry, the greengage!
From The Way of Ambition by J. H. Gardner Soper
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.
