Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

nut       (nŭt)  Pronunciation Key  (click for larger image in new window) n.   An indehiscent, hard-shelled, one-loculated, one-seeded fruit, such as an acorn or hazelnut. A seed borne within a fruit having a hard shell, as in the peanut, almond, or walnut. The kernel of any of these. A crazy or eccentric person. An enthusiast; a buff: a movie nut. A ridge of wood at the top of the fingerboard or neck of a stringed instrument, over which the strings pass. A device at the lower end of the bow for a stringed instrument, used for tightening the hairs. The cost of launching a business venture. The operating expenses of a theater, theatrical production, or similar enterprise: "The [theater] has simply failed to attract enough paying customers per week to meet its nut" (Variety). Slang A crazy or eccentric person. An enthusiast; a buff: a movie nut. A ridge of wood at the top of the fingerboard or neck of a stringed instrument, over which the strings pass. A device at the lower end of the bow for a stringed instrument, used for tightening the hairs. The cost of launching a business venture. The operating expenses of a theater, theatrical production, or similar enterprise: "The [theater] has simply failed to attract enough paying customers per week to meet its nut" (Variety). Informal A difficult endeavor or problem: Painting the closet was a tough nut to crack. Slang The human head. Music A ridge of wood at the top of the fingerboard or neck of a stringed instrument, over which the strings pass. A device at the lower end of the bow for a stringed instrument, used for tightening the hairs. The cost of launching a business venture. The operating expenses of a theater, theatrical production, or similar enterprise: "The [theater] has simply failed to attract enough paying customers per week to meet its nut" (Variety). A small block of metal or wood with a central, threaded hole that is designed to fit around and secure a bolt or screw. Slang The cost of launching a business venture. The operating expenses of a theater, theatrical production, or similar enterprise: "The [theater] has simply failed to attract enough paying customers per week to meet its nut" (Variety). Vulgar Slang A testicle. intr.v.   nut·ted, nut·ting, nuts To gather or hunt for nuts. [Middle English nute, from Old English hnutu.] nut'ter n.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
nut 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

nut
noun
1.	usually large hard-shelled seed
2.	Egyptian goddess of the sky
3.	a small (usually square or hexagonal) metal block with internal screw thread to be fitted onto a bolt
4.	half the width of an em [syn: en]
5.	a whimsically eccentric person [syn: crackpot]
6.	someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction; "a golf addict"; "a car nut"; "a bodybuilding freak"; "a news junkie" [syn: addict]
7.	one of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens; "she kicked him in the balls and got away" [syn: testis]
verb
1.	gather nuts

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

nut

In addition to the idioms beginning with nuts, also see drive someone crazy (nuts); from soup to nuts; hard nut to crack.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

nut       (nŭt)  Pronunciation Key  A dry, indehiscent simple fruit consisting of one seed surrounded by a hard and thick pericarp (fruit wall). The seed does not adhere to the pericarp but is connected to it by the funiculus. A nut is similar to an achene but larger. Acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, and hazelnuts are true nuts. Informally, other edible seeds or dry fruits enclosed in a hard or leathery shell are also called nuts, though they are not true nuts. For instance, an almond kernel is actually the seed of a drupe. Its familiar whitish shell is an endocarp found within the greenish fruit of the almond tree. Peanuts are actually individual seeds from a seed pod called a legume.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Nut

Nut\, n. [OE. nute, note, AS. hnutu; akin to D. noot, G. nuss, OHG. nuz, Icel. hnot, Sw. n["o]t, Dan. n["o]d.]

1. (Bot.) The fruit of certain trees and shrubs (as of the almond, walnut, hickory, beech, filbert, etc.), consisting of a hard and indehiscent shell inclosing a kernel.

2. A perforated block (usually a small piece of metal), provided with an internal or female screw thread, used on a bolt, or screw, for tightening or holding something, or for transmitting motion. See Illust. of lst Bolt.

3. The tumbler of a gunlock. --Knight.

4. (Naut.) A projection on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock in place.

Check nut, Jam nut, Lock nut, a nut which is screwed up tightly against another nut on the same bolt or screw, in order to prevent accidental unscrewing of the first nut.

Nut buoy. See under Buoy.

Nut coal, screened coal of a size smaller than stove coal and larger than pea coal; -- called also chestnut coal.

Nut crab (Zo["o]l.), any leucosoid crab of the genus Ebalia as, Ebalia tuberosa of Europe.

Nut grass (Bot.), a plant of the Sedge family (Cyperus rotundus, var. Hydra), which has slender rootstocks bearing small, nutlike tubers, by which the plant multiplies exceedingly, especially in cotton fields.

Nut lock, a device, as a metal plate bent up at the corners, to prevent a nut from becoming unscrewed, as by jarring.

Nut pine. (Bot.) See under Pine.

Nut rush (Bot.), a genus of cyperaceous plants (Scleria) having a hard bony achene. Several species are found in the United States and many more in tropical regions.

Nut tree, a tree that bears nuts.

Nut weevil (Zo["o]l.), any species of weevils of the genus Balaninus and other allied genera, which in the larval state live in nuts.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Nut

Nut\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Nutted; p. pr. & vb. n. Nutting.] To gather nuts.