Adjacent Words

date plum definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an Asiatic persimmon tree cultivated for its small yellow or purplish-black edible fruit much valued by Afghan tribes [syn: date plum, Diospyros lotus]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lotus Lo"tus, n. [L. lotus, Gr. ?. Cf. Lote.] 1. (Bot.) (a) A name of several kinds of water lilies; as Nelumbium speciosum, used in religious ceremonies, anciently in Egypt, and to this day in Asia; Nelumbium luteum, the American lotus; and Nymph[ae]a Lotus and N. c[ae]rulea, the respectively white-flowered and blue-flowered lotus of modern Egypt, which, with Nelumbium speciosum, are figured on its ancient monuments. (b) The lotus of the lotuseaters, probably a tree found in Northern Africa, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain (Zizyphus Lotus), the fruit of which is mildly sweet. It was fabled by the ancients to make strangers who ate of it forget their native country, or lose all desire to return to it. (c) The lote, or nettle tree. See Lote. (d) A genus (Lotus) of leguminous plants much resembling clover. [Written also lotos.] European lotus, a small tree (Diospyros Lotus) of Southern Europe and Asia; also, its rather large bluish black berry, which is called also the date plum.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Date Date, n.[F. datte, L. dactylus, fr. Gr. ?, prob. not the same word as da`ktylos finger, but of Semitic origin.] (Bot.) The fruit of the date palm; also, the date palm itself. Note: This fruit is somewhat in the shape of an olive, containing a soft pulp, sweet, esculent, and wholesome, and inclosing a hard kernel. Date palm, or Date tree (Bot.), the genus of palms which bear dates, of which common species is Ph[oe]nix dactylifera. See Illust. Date plum (Bot.), the fruit of several species of Diospyros, including the American and Japanese persimmons, and the European lotus (D. Lotus). Date shell, or Date fish (Zo["o]l.), a bivalve shell, or its inhabitant, of the genus Pholas, and allied genera. See Pholas.