Vegetable

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vegetable \Veg`e*ta*ble\, a. [F. v['e]g['e]table growing,
     capable of growing, formerly also, as a noun, a vegetable,
     from L. vegetabilis enlivening, from vegetare to enliven,
     invigorate, quicken, vegetus enlivened, vigorous, active,
     vegere to quicken, arouse, to be lively, akin to vigere to be
     lively, to thrive, vigil watchful, awake, and probably to E.


     wake, v. See {Vigil}, {Wake}, v.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or
        produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable
        growths, juices, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Blooming ambrosial fruit
              Of vegetable gold.                    --Milton.
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     2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable
        kingdom.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Vegetable alkali} (Chem.), an alkaloid.
  
     {Vegetable brimstone}. (Bot.) See {Vegetable sulphur}, below.
        
  
     {Vegetable butter} (Bot.), a name of several kinds of
        concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian
        butter tree, the African shea tree, and the {Pentadesma
        butyracea}, a tree of the order {Guttiferae}, also
        African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of
        cocoa ({Theobroma}).
  
     {Vegetable flannel}, a textile material, manufactured in
        Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained
        from the leaves of the {Pinus sylvestris}.
  
     {Vegetable ivory}. See {Ivory nut}, under {Ivory}.
  
     {Vegetable jelly}. See {Pectin}.
  
     {Vegetable kingdom}. (Nat. Hist.) See the last Phrase, below.
        
  
     {Vegetable leather}.
        (a) (Bot.) A shrubby West Indian spurge ({Euphorbia
            punicea}), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts.
        (b) See {Vegetable leather}, under {Leather}.
  
     {Vegetable marrow} (Bot.), an egg-shaped gourd, commonly
        eight to ten inches long. It is noted for the very tender
        quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable
        in England. It has been said to be of Persian origin, but
        is now thought to have been derived from a form of the
        American pumpkin.
  
     {Vegetable oyster} (Bot.), the oyster plant. See under
        {Oyster}.
  
     {Vegetable parchment}, papyrine.
  
     {Vegetable sheep} (Bot.), a white woolly plant ({Raoulia
        eximia}) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large
        fleecy cushions on the mountains.
  
     {Vegetable silk}, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained
        from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree
        ({Chorisia speciosa}). It is used for various purposes, as
        for stuffing cushions, and the like, but is incapable of
        being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the
        fibers.
  
     {Vegetable sponge}. See 1st {Loof}.
  
     {Vegetable sulphur}, the fine and highly inflammable spores
        of the club moss ({Lycopodium clavatum}); witch meal.
  
     {Vegetable tallow}, a substance resembling tallow, obtained
        from various plants; as, {Chinese vegetable tallow},
        obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. {Indian
        vegetable tallow} is a name sometimes given to piney
        tallow.
  
     {Vegetable wax}, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of
        certain plants, as the bayberry.
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        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Vegetable kingdom} (Nat. Hist.), that primary division of
        living things which includes all plants. The classes of
        the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by
        various botanists. The following is one of the best of the
        many arrangements of the principal subdivisions.
        [1913 Webster] I. {Phaenogamia} (called also
        {Phanerogamia}). Plants having distinct flowers and true
        seeds. [ 1. {Dicotyledons} (called also {Exogens}). --
        Seeds with two or more cotyledons. Stems with the pith,
        woody fiber, and bark concentrically arranged. Divided
        into two subclasses: {Angiosperms}, having the woody fiber
        interspersed with dotted or annular ducts, and the seeds
        contained in a true ovary; {Gymnosperms}, having few or no
        ducts in the woody fiber, and the seeds naked. 2.
        {Monocotyledons} (called also {Endogens}). -- Seeds with
        single cotyledon. Stems with slender bundles of woody
        fiber not concentrically arranged, and with no true bark.]
        [1913 Webster] II. {Cryptogamia}. Plants without true
        flowers, and reproduced by minute spores of various kinds,
        or by simple cell division. [ 1. {Acrogens}. -- Plants
        usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two
        alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and
        sporophoric, the other sexual and oophoric. Divided into
        {Vascular Acrogens}, or {Pteridophyta}, having the
        sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of
        vascular tissue, as in Ferns, Lycopods, and Equiseta, and
        {Cellular Acrogens}, or {Bryophyta}, having the sexual
        plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue,
        as in Mosses and Scale Mosses. 2. {Thallogens}. -- Plants
        without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple
        or branched mass of cellular tissue, or reduced to a
        single cell. Reproduction effected variously. Divided into
        {Algae}, which contain chlorophyll or its equivalent, and
        which live upon air and water, and {Fungi}, which contain
        no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are
        now believed to be fungi parasitic on included algae.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Many botanists divide the Phaenogamia primarily into
           Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and the latter into
           Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Others consider
           Pteridophyta and Bryophyta to be separate classes.
           Thallogens are variously divided by different writers,
           and the places for diatoms, slime molds, and stoneworts
           are altogether uncertain.
           [1913 Webster] For definitions, see these names in the
           Vocabulary.
           [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vegetable \Veg"e*ta*ble\, n.
     1. (Biol.) A plant. See {Plant}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A plant used or cultivated for food for man or domestic
        animals, as the cabbage, turnip, potato, bean, dandelion,
        etc.; also, the edible part of such a plant, as prepared
        for market or the table.
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     3. A person who has permanently lost consciousness, due to
        damage to the brain, but remains alive; sometimes
        continued life requires support by machinery such as
        breathing tubes. Such a person is said to be in a
        vegetative state.
        [PJC]
  
     Note: Vegetables and fruits are sometimes loosely
           distinguished by the usual need of cooking the former
           for the use of man, while the latter may be eaten raw;
           but the distinction often fails, as in the case of
           quinces, barberries, and other fruits, and lettuce,
           celery, and other vegetables. Tomatoes if cooked are
           vegetables, if eaten raw are fruits.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  vegetable
       adj : of the nature of or characteristic of or derived from
             plants; "decaying vegetable matter" [ant: {mineral}, {animal}]
       n 1: edible seeds or roots or stems or leaves or bulbs or tubers
            or nonsweet fruits of any of numerous herbaceous plant
            [syn: {veggie}]
       2: any of various herbaceous plants cultivated for an edible
          part such as the fruit or the root of the beet or the leaf
          of spinach or the seeds of bean plants or the flower buds
          of broccoli or cauliflower

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  214 Moby Thesaurus words for "vegetable":
     Boston lettuce, Chinese cabbage, French bean, Irish potato, Kraut,
     Swiss chard, amphibian, angiosperm, annual, apathetic,
     aquatic plant, asparagus, aubergine, bean, bean sprout, beans,
     beet, beet greens, beetroot, bell pepper, benumbed, biennial,
     blase, bored, botanic, broccoli, bulbous, butter bean, cabbage,
     carrot, cauliflower, celery, celery cabbage, celery root, celtuce,
     cereal, chard, chick-pea, chicory, collards, contemplative, corn,
     cosmopolite, cress, cucumber, cutting, dead, debilitated,
     deciduous plant, dicot, dicotyledon, do-nothing, dopey, dormant,
     droopy, drugged, dull, eggplant, enervated, ephemeral, evergreen,
     exanimate, exotic, farinaceous, flowering plant, fruitlike, fruity,
     fungus, gametophyte, garlic, green bean, green onion, green pea,
     green pepper, greens, gumbo, gymnosperm, heavy, hebetudinous,
     herbaceous, herbal, herbose, herbous, herby, hominy, horseradish,
     hydrophyte, idle, immobile, inactive, inanimate, inert, jaded,
     kale, kidney beans, kohlrabi, lackadaisical, laissez-aller,
     laissez-faire, languid, languorous, leaden, leek, legumes,
     leguminose, leguminous, lentil, lethargic, lettuce, lifeless,
     listless, love apple, lumpish, mad apple, maize, meditative,
     monocot, monocotyl, moribund, motionless, mushroom, navy bean,
     neuter, neutral, numb, onion, oyster plant, paralytic, paralyzed,
     parsley, parsnip, passive, pea, pepper, perennial, phlegmatic,
     pieplant, pimento, pinto bean, plant, plantlike, polycot,
     polycotyl, polycotyledon, pooped, popcorn, potato, potherbs,
     procrastinating, produce, pumpkin, quiescent, quietist, quietistic,
     radicated, radiciform, radicular, radish, red cabbage, red pepper,
     rhizoid, rhubarb, rootlike, sated, scallion, seed plant, seedling,
     shallot, sleepy, slow, sluggish, somnolent, sorrel, soy, soya,
     spermatophyte, spinach, sporophyte, spud, squash, stagnant,
     stagnating, standpat, static, stationary, stultified, succory,
     sugar beet, supine, swede, sweet potato, taro, tater, thallophyte,
     tomato, torpid, triennial, truffle, tuberous, turnip,
     vascular plant, vegetables, vegetal, vegetarian, vegetational,
     vegetative, wan, water chestnut, weary, weed, weedy, white potato,
     world-weary, yam