vegetable
vegetable: n. & adj. --n.
1 Bot. any of various plants, esp. a herbaceous plant used wholly or partly for food, e.g. a cabbage, potato, turnip, or bean.
2 colloq. a a person who is incapable of normal intellectual activity, esp. through brain injury etc. b a person lacking in animation or living a monotonous life. --adj.
1 of, derived from, relating to, or comprising plants or plant life, esp. as distinct from animal life or mineral substances.
2 of or relating to vegetables as food.
3 a unresponsive to stimulus (vegetable behaviour). b uneventful, monotonous (a vegetable existence). vegetable butter a vegetable fat with the consistency of butter. vegetable ivory see IVORY . vegetable marrow see MARROW 1. vegetable oyster = SALSIFY. vegetable parchment see PARCHMENT 2. vegetable spaghetti 1 a variety of marrow with flesh resembling spaghetti.
2 its flesh. vegetable sponge = LOOFAH. vegetable tallow see TALLOW . vegetable wax an exudation of certain plants such as sumac. [ME f. OF vegetable or LL vegetabilis animating (as VEGETATE)]
Most popular pairs with vegetable
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