any tropical, climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla, esp. V. planifolia, bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food, in perfumery, etc.
2.
Also called vanilla bean.the fruit or bean of this orchid.
3.
the extract of this fruit.
–adjective
4.
containing or flavored with vanilla: vanilla custard.
Any of various tropical American vines of the genus Vanilla in the orchid family, especially V. planifolia, cultivated for its long narrow seedpods from which a flavoring agent is obtained.
The seedpod of this plant. Also called vanilla bean.
A flavoring extract prepared from the cured seedpods of this plant or produced synthetically.
adj.
Flavored with vanilla: vanilla pudding.
Lacking adornments or special features; basic or ordinary: "We went through a period of vanilla cars"(Charles Jordan).
[Obsolete Spanish vainilla, diminutive of vaina, sheath (from the shape of its seedpods), from Latin vāgīna.]
1662, from Sp. vainilla "vanilla plant," lit. "little pod," dim. of vaina "sheath," from L. vagina "sheath" (see vagina). So called from the shape of the pods. European discovery 1521 by Hernando Cortes' soldiers on reconnaissance in southeastern Mexico. Meaning "conventional, of ordinary sexual preferences" is 1970s, from notion of whiteness and the common choice of vanilla ice cream. Vanillin is from 1868.
flavored with vanilla extract; "he liked vanilla ice cream"
2.
plain and without any extras or adornments; "the most common type of bond is the straight or plain vanilla bond"; "the basic car is known as the vanilla version"
noun
1.
any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant white or green or topaz flowers
2.
a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol (or imitating vanilla beans)
3.
a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans
vanilla 1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary flavour, standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract! For example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7Unix can't run on a vanilla PDP 11/34." Also used to orthogonalise chip nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in that the latter means "default", whereas vanilla simply means "ordinary". For example, when hackers go to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the canonical wonton soup to get (because that is what most of them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton soup. [The Jargon File] (1994-11-04) 2. Snobol4 by Catspaw, Inc. for MS-DOS. (ftp://cs.arizona.edu/snobol4/vanilla.arc). (1992-02-05)
Bean\ (b[=e]n), n. [OE. bene, AS. be['a]n; akin to D. boon, G. bohne, OHG. p[=o]na, Icel. baun, Dan. b["o]nne, Sw. b["o]na, and perh. to Russ. bob, L. faba.]1. (Bot.) A name given to the seed of certain leguminous herbs, chiefly of the genera Faba, Phaseolus, and Dolichos; also, to the herbs. Note: The origin and classification of many kinds are still doubtful. Among true beans are: the black-eyed bean and China bean, included in Dolichos Sinensis; black Egyptian bean or hyacinth bean, D. Lablab; the common haricot beans, kidney beans, string beans, and pole beans, all included in Phaseolus vulgaris; the lower bush bean, Ph. vulgaris, variety nanus; Lima bean, Ph. lunatus; Spanish bean and scarlet runner, Ph. maltiflorus; Windsor bean, the common bean of England, Faba vulgaris. As an article of food beans are classed with vegetables. 2. The popular name of other vegetable seeds or fruits, more or less resembling true beans. Bean aphis (Zo["o]l.), a plant louse (Aphis fab[ae]) which infests the bean plant. Bean fly (Zo["o]l.), a fly found on bean flowers. Bean goose (Zo["o]l.), a species of goose (Anser segetum). Bean weevil (Zo["o]l.), a small weevil that in the larval state destroys beans. The American species in Bruchus fab[ae]. Florida bean (Bot.), the seed of Mucuna urens, a West Indian plant. The seeds are washed up on the Florida shore, and are often polished and made into ornaments. Ignatius bean, or St. Ignatius's bean (Bot.), a species of Strychnos. Navy bean, the common dried white bean of commerce; probably so called because an important article of food in the navy. Pea bean, a very small and highly esteemed variety of the edible white bean; -- so called from its size. Sacred bean. See under Sacred. Screw bean. See under Screw. Sea bean. (a) Same as Florida bean. (b) A red bean of unknown species used for ornament. Tonquin bean, or Tonka bean, the fragrant seed of Dipteryx odorata, a leguminous tree. Vanilla bean. See under Vanilla.
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