English
fruit
Pronunciation Noun

fruit (see Usage notes for discussion of plural)

  1. (often, in the plural) In general, a product of plant growth useful to man or animals.
  2. Specifically, a sweet, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit (see next sense), even if it does not develop from a floral ovary; also used in a technically imprecise sense for some sweet or sweetish vegetable, such as the petiole of rhubarb, that resemble a true fruit or are used in cookery as if they were a fruit.
  3. (botany) A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically:
    1. The seed-bearing part of a plant, often edible, colourful and fragrant, produced from a floral ovary after fertilization.
    2. The spores of cryptogams and their accessory organs.
  4. 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, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
      the fruit of rashness
    • Bible, Isaiah iii. 10
      They shall eat the fruit of their doings.
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
      {quote-meta/quote
  5. (attributive) Of, belonging to, related to, or having fruit or its characteristics; (of living things) producing or consuming fruit.
    the fresh-squeezed fruit juice; a fruit salad; an artificial fruit flavor; a fruit tree; a fruit bat
  6. (dated, colloquial, derogatory) A homosexual man; (derogatory, figurative) an effeminate man. [1900]
  7. (archaic) Offspring from a sexual union.
    Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
    The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.
    • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene iv]:
      King Edward's fruit, true heir to the English crown
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

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

  1. To produce fruit, seeds, or spores.
Translations
Fruit
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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