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fruit (frt)
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n. pl. fruit or fruits
1.
a. The ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant, together with accessory parts, containing the seeds and occurring in a wide variety of forms.
b. An edible, usually sweet and fleshy form of such a structure.
c. A part or an amount of such a plant product, served as food: fruit for dessert.
2. The fertile, often spore-bearing structure of a plant that does not bear seeds.
3. A plant crop or product: the fruits of the earth.
4. Result; outcome: the fruit of their labor.
5. Offspring; progeny.
6. A fruity aroma or flavor in a wine.
7. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a gay man.
intr. & tr.v. fruit·ed, fruit·ing, fruits
To produce or cause to produce fruit.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin frūctus, enjoyment, fruit, from past participle of fruī, to enjoy.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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