greengage nounEtymology:green + Sir William Gage died 1820 English
botanist Date: 1724
any of several rather small rounded greenish or greenish-yellow cultivated
plums
Note: Two or three hundred varieties of plums derived from
the Prunus domestica are described; among them the
greengage, the Orleans, the purple gage, or
Reine Claude Violette, and the German prune, are
some of the best known.
Note: Among the true plums are;
Beach plum, the Prunus maritima, and its crimson or
purple globular drupes,
Bullace plum. See Bullace.
Chickasaw plum, the American Prunus Chicasa, and its
round red drupes.
Orleans plum, a dark reddish purple plum of medium size,
much grown in England for sale in the markets.
Wild plum of America, Prunus Americana, with red or
yellow fruit, the original of the Iowa plum and several
other varieties. Among plants called plum, but of other
genera than Prunus, are;
Australian plum, Cargillia arborea and C. australis, of
the same family with the persimmon.
Blood plum, the West African H[ae]matostaphes Barteri.
Cocoa plum, the Spanish nectarine. See under Nectarine.
Date plum. See under Date.
Gingerbread plum, the West African Parinarium
macrophyllum}.
Gopher plum, the Ogeechee lime.
Gray plum, Guinea plum. See under Guinea.
Indian plum, several species of Flacourtia.
2. A grape dried in the sun; a raisin.
3. A handsome fortune or property; formerly, in cant
language, the sum of [pounds]100,000 sterling; also, the
person possessing it.
Plum bird, Plum budder (Zo["o]l.), the European
bullfinch.
Plum gouger (Zo["o]l.), a weevil, or curculio ({Coccotorus
scutellaris}), which destroys plums. It makes round holes
in the pulp, for the reception of its eggs. The larva
bores into the stone and eats the kernel.
Plum weevil (Zo["o]l.), an American weevil which is very
destructive to plums, nectarines cherries, and many other
stone fruits. It lays its eggs in crescent-shaped
incisions made with its jaws. The larva lives upon the
pulp around the stone. Called also turk, and plum
curculio}. See Illust. under Curculio.
Greengage \Green"gage`\, n. (Bot.)
A kind of plum of medium size, roundish shape, greenish
flesh, and delicious flavor. It is called in France Reine
Claude}, after the queen of Francis I. See Gage.
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