From Middle English fruyt, frut, from Old French fruit, from Latin frūctus and frūx (compare Latin fruor), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰruHg-.

• (RP) enPR: fro͞ot, IPA: /fɹuːt/
• (America) IPA: /fɹut/
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /fɹʉt/

fruit (see Usage notes for discussion of plural)

1. (botany) A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically:
   1. The seed-bearing part of a plant; often edible, colourful, fragrant, and sweet or sour; produced from a floral ovary after fertilization.
   2. The spores of cryptogams and their accessory organs.
2. Any sweet or sour, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit (see former sense) even if it does not develop from a floral ovary.
   1. A sweet or sweetish vegetable, such as the petioles of rhubarb, that resembles a true fruit or is used in cookery as if it was a fruit.
3. An end result, effect or consequence; advantageous or disadvantageous result.

   His long nights in the office eventually bore fruit when his business boomed and he was given a raise.

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     the fruit of rashness

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Isaiah 3:10 ↗:

     They shall eat the fruit of their doings.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC ↗:

     The fruits of this education became visible.

4. (attributive) Of, belonging to, related to, or having fruit or its characteristics; (of living things) producing or consuming fruit.

   fresh-squeezed fruit juice

   a fruit salad

   an artificial fruit flavor

   a fruit tree

5. (dated, colloquial, derogatory) A homosexual man; (derogatory, figurative) an effeminate man. [from 1900]
   • 1977 [1953], William S. Burroughs, edited by Allen Ginsberg, Junky, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 66 ↗:

     "Moishe just checked in," he said. "He's a panhandler and a fruit. A disgrace to the Jewish race."

6. (archaic) Offspring from a sexual union.

   The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     King Edward's fruit, true heir to the English crown

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Luke 1:42 ↗:

     And she spake out with a loud voyce, and saide, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruite of thy wombe.

7. (informal) A crazy person.

• fructose
• frugivore
• frugivorous

• French: fruit
• German: Frucht
• Italian: frutto
• Portuguese: fruta (collective), fruto
• Russian: плод
• Spanish: fruta, fruto

• French: fruit
• German: Frucht, Obst
• Italian: frutto, frutta (collective, uncountable),
• Portuguese: fruta, fruto
• Russian: фрукт
• Spanish: fruta

• French: fruit
• German: Frucht, Früchte
• Italian: frutto
• Portuguese: fruto
• Russian: плод
• Spanish: fruto

• French: fruit
• German: Spross, Sprössling
• Italian: frutto
• Portuguese: fruto
• Russian: плод
• Spanish: fruto

• French: pédé, (effeminate) folle f
• German: Schwuler, Schwuchtel, Tunte
• Italian: frocio, finocchio
• Portuguese: bicha
• Russian: го́мик
• Spanish: maricón, marica

fruit (fruits, present participle fruiting; simple past and past participle fruited)

1. To produce fruit, seeds, or spores.

• French: affruiter
• German: fruchten
• Spanish: dar fruta

1. Surname.

fruit (uncountable)

1. (aviation) Acronym of false replies unsynchronized/uncorrelated in time

• fruiting