Adjacent Words

breadfruit definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: native to Pacific islands and having edible fruit with a texture like bread [syn: breadfruit, breadfruit tree, Artocarpus communis, Artocarpus altilis]
2: a large round seedless or seeded fruit with a texture like bread; eaten boiled or baked or roasted or ground into flour; the roasted seeds resemble chestnuts

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1697 a round starchy usually seedless fruit that resembles bread in color and texture when baked; also a tall tropical evergreen tree (Artocarpus altilis) of the mulberry family that bears this fruit

Britannica Concise

Fruit of either of two closely related trees belonging to the mulberry family. Artocarpus communis (also called A. incisa or A. altilis) provides a staple food of the S. Pacific. Its greenish to brownish-green, roundish ripe fruits have a white fibrous pulp. Treculia africana, native to tropical Africa, is less important as a food crop. Cultivated in the Malay Archipelago (where it is thought to be indigenous) since remote antiquity, the breadfruit spread throughout the tropical S. Pacific in prehistoric times. It is high in starch and is seldom eaten raw. Unable to tolerate frost, the tree has not been successfully grown in the U.S., even in southernmost Florida. In the South Seas cloth is made from the inner bark, the wood is used for canoes and furniture, and glue and caulking material are obtained from the milky juice.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a tropical evergreen tree, Artocarpus altilis, bearing edible usu. seedless fruit. 2 the fruit of this tree which when roasted becomes soft like new bread.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Breadfruit Bread"fruit`, n. (Bot.) 1. The fruit of a tree (Artocarpus incisa) found in the islands of the Pacific, esp. the South Sea islands. It is of a roundish form, from four to six or seven inches in diameter, and, when baked, somewhat resembles bread, and is eaten as food, whence the name. 2. (Bot.) The tree itself, which is one of considerable size, with large, lobed leaves. Cloth is made from the bark, and the timber is used for many purposes. Called also breadfruit tree and bread tree.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(breadfruit) Breadfruit are large round fruit that grow on trees in the Pacific Islands and in tropical parts of America and that, when baked, look and feel like bread. N-VAR