Nearby Words
Related Questions
Canned chestnut fromchina www.chreas.com Organic chestnut products Biggest chestnut exporter
Chestnuts www.chestnutsonline.com Dried chestnuts, chestnut flour and mixes from Allen Creek Farm
Chestnuts and dried www.chestnuttrails.com chestnut products, whole dried, flour and chestnut chips
Ads
noun
1.
any of the several deciduous trees constituting the genus Castanea, of the beech family, having toothed, oblong leaves and bearing edible nuts enclosed in a prickly bur, and including C. dentata (American chestnut), which has been virtually destroyed by the chestnut blight, C. sativa (European chestnut), C. mollissima (Chinese chestnut), and C. crenata (Japanese chestnut).
2.
the edible nut of such a tree.
3.
the wood of any of these trees.
4.
any fruit or tree resembling the chestnut, as the horse chestnut.
5.
EXPANDreddish brown.
6.
an old or stale joke, anecdote, etc.
7.
the callosity on the inner side of the leg of a horse.
8.
a reddish-brown horse having the mane and tail of the same color. Compare bay5 (def. 2).
9.
COLLAPSEAlso called liver chestnut. a horse of a solid, dark-brown color.
adjective
11.
(of food) containing or made with chestnuts: turkey with chestnut stuffing.
:10
:09
:08
:07
:06
:05
:04
:03
:02
:01
Chestnut
is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
12.
pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire, to rescue someone from a difficulty.
Origin:
1350–1400; 1880–85 for def. 6; earlier chesten nut, Middle English chesten, Old English cysten chestnut tree (< Latin castanea < Greek kastanéa) + nut
1350–1400; 1880–85 for def. 6; earlier chesten nut, Middle English chesten, Old English cysten chestnut tree (< Latin castanea < Greek kastanéa) + nut
Related forms
chest·nut·ty, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
|
Link To chestnut
Collins
World English Dictionary
| chestnut (ˈtʃɛsˌnʌt) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | horse chestnut water chestnut Compare dwarf chestnut any N temperate fagaceous tree of the genus Castanea, such as C. sativa (sweet or Spanish chestnut), which produce flowers in long catkins and nuts in a prickly bur |
| 2. | the edible nut of any of these trees |
| 3. | the hard wood of any of these trees, used in making furniture, etc |
| 4. | a. a reddish-brown to brown colour |
| b. (as adjective): chestnut hair | |
| 5. | a horse of a yellow-brown or golden-brown colour |
| 6. | a small horny callus on the inner surface of a horse's leg |
| 7. | informal an old or stale joke |
| [C16: from earlier chesten nut: chesten, from Old French chastaigne, from Latin castanea, from Greek kastanea] | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
chestnut
1570, from chesten nut (1519), from M.E. chasteine, from O.Fr. chastaigne, from L. castanea, from Gk. kastaneia, which the Greeks thought meant either "nut from Castanea" in Pontus, or "nut from Castana" in Thessaly, but probably both places are named for the trees, not the other way around, and the
EXPAND word is probably borrowed from a language of Asia Minor. Of the dark reddish-brown color, 1656. Applied to the horse-chestnut 1832. Slang sense of "venerable joke or story" is from 1886, probably from a joke (first recorded 1888) based on an oft-repeated story in which a chestnut tree figures. The key part of the 1888 citation is:
COLLAPSE
"When suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork-tree --"
"A chestnut, Captain; a chestnut."
"Bah! booby, I say a cork-tree!"
"A chestnut," reiterates Pablo. "I should know as well as you, having heard you tell the tale these twenty-seven times."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
American Heritage
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com
Idioms & Phrases
Images for chestnut
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.