Origin:
1125–75; Middle English < Old French < Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, equivalent to frūg-, variant stem of fruī to enjoy the produce of + -tus suffix of v. action

Related forms

fruit·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To fruit

Example Sentences

Depending on how you make it, a smoothie can end up with more milk and yogurt than fruit.

During many summer days, all the fruit flies needed for experiments die from the heat.

And this trend is due, he says, to the exhaustion of the supply of low-hanging economic fruit.

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Depending on how you make it, a smoothie can end up with more milk and yogurt than fruit.

During many summer days, all the fruit flies needed for experiments die from the heat.

And this trend is due, he says, to the exhaustion of the supply of low-hanging economic fruit.

They were robbed at knifepoint and had to live off fruit trees.

Imbibing the liquid of fermented fruit may have had its start in medicinal traditions.

It's not unusual for plants to produce mutant fruit that lacks seeds, but these fruits are usually the end of their line.

Warm, grilled fruit desserts make use of an already hot barbecue.

When it comes to farm robots, fruit gets all the attention.

Smoothies are a wonderful way to use lots of fruit quickly.

Pick when the papery husk is filled out with fruit and the husk begins to turn slightly brown.

Dole has diversified its sourcing of bananas, and branched out into other lines of fruit.

The birds use them to reach fruit on branches that are too small to support their weight, and also to skin their pickings.

Slow-motion video shows that fruit flies plan their escape well before you begin your attempt to swat them.

Second, the fresh fruit doesn't spend enough time in the elephant to ferment and produce alcohol there.

Periodic pruning maintains the pattern and encourages fruit production.

The fruit comes in small berries the size of a golf ball, with a peel that is easily broken.

The underground fruit economy is growing, based on two principles: one, it's a shame to let fruit go to waste.

It is sensible to look for low-hanging fruit in the early stages of concerted efforts to achieve fundamental change.

The flies were then given the same fruit but without an additive.

Raccoons also eat fruit and plants-including those grown in human gardens and farms.

Whether he sells a lot of fruit or a little, he maintains his position.

Anyone who has ever smelled a durian fruit can tell you that it smells mighty strong.

Many of these deciduous kinds offer a bonus of edible fruit.

Scientists found that fruit flies possess a protein that mirrors the effect of cocaine in human beings.

Local and regional fruit and vegetable production will languish anywhere that the commodity program has influence.

When markets are rising and everyday conversations are abuzz with brokerage triumphs, reward seems but a low-hanging fruit.

The state's fruit and vegetable growers are co-operating with officials despite the losses they are likely to incur.

The only fruit proboscis monkeys will eat is unripe fruit.

Scientists pinpoint a key to sleepiness in fruit flies.

But the legend of the musk strawberry persisted among a few scientists and fruit connoisseurs.

Canning is the best way to preserve the freshness of summer fruit.

It's actually a gelatinous preparation of the cell walls of red algae, used to thicken the fruit filling.

Bring the six kinds of dried fruit and the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan.

If you are untenured and your courses do not attract enough students, then you can become low-hanging fruit for nonrenewal.

They do little damage to the plant itself, but they make fruit and vegetable unmarketable.

Bat bugs swarm across a cave wall near a fruit bat colony.

Well, guess what has pesticides in it--all your veggis and fruit unless you buy organic.

Fig trees only bear fruit thanks to something called a fig wasp.

Now that the holidays are over, it's time to think about bare-root fruit tree planting.

Fruit bats are important seed dispersers in tropical forests.

But eliminate the pungent odor from the world's smelliest fruit and brace for a major international controversy.

The study examined the effects of alcohol on the antioxidant properties of some fruit.

Imminent membership has borne unequivocal fruit in one area: an upsurge in foreign investment.

Any materials that used to be a plant can go into your compost bin, including all fruit and vegetable scraps.

Two mutations turned a tiny, wild fruit into the modern large, luscious tomato.

Some cultures use almost every part of the tree from the leaves to the water inside of the coconut fruit.

Oozy, mild melted cheese pairs beautifully with the sweet and tangy fruit.

Either that, or our world will come to be dominated by minds as far beyond ours as we're beyond fruit flies.

Just before serving, whisk the dressing again and drizzle over the fruit.

It took six to seven years between planting young trees and harvesting fruit.

But sceptics say these crops take too long to bear fruit and their yield is unreliable.

The endangered golden-capped fruit bat lives in these forests.

Show me one person on the planet who contracted cancer eating fruit and vegetables.

Both males and females strode about the enclosure picking up fruit and mingling with their friends.

Yes, the fruit fly was revealed to have fewer genes than a previously mapped worm.

Smoothies are a delicious and easy way to boost your fruit and vegetable consumption.

Maybe the best news of all is that sabbaticals keep on bearing fruit for months and years to come.

In the wild, the banana is an inedible fruit stuffed with stony seeds.

Kinkajous also eat fruit and small mammals, which they snare with their nimble front paws and sharp claws.

We planted a garden and fruit trees to supplement our diet.

Attention all future space tourists: on your first day up, avoid juice and dried fruit.

Before they became domesticated crops, wild bananas were inedible fruit stuffed with stony seeds.

Thimbleberry derives its name from the shape of its fruit.

Autumn in the greenhouses arrives with the sweet scent of citrus plants in bloom, followed by the arrival of their fruit.

Researchers believe they've found a major key to aging by studying fruit fly and worm genes.

Nigeria, for example, is forever banning and unbanning imports such as fruit juice.

And the still life with fruit is one of the first subjects art students tackle.

Videogame characters used to have the life cycle of fruit flies.

Plant a fruit or nut tree if you want an edible dividend.

Tracking eastern bluebirds is easy when they've dined on artificially fluorescent fruit.

Tiny and ubiquitous, the fruit fly is a helpful model for the study of memory.

Make an instant stamp from this seasonal five-pointed fruit.

Preserving fruit with alcohol is easier than serious canning, with its macerating, simmering and sterilization of jars.

If you wait too long the fruit will fall off the vine and shrivel.

See how to freeze fresh fruit at the peak of flavor for delicious jams, pies, and smoothies later.

Intense, tart-sweet dried fruit is excellent to have on hand for snacking, to serve with cheese and to use in cooking.

Last month it multiplied with the same brainless abandon as fruit flies around a rotting banana.

Flies that avoided the fruit which had been bitter were deemed to have learned from their experience.

You've probably noticed, for example, that all the fruit is in one place.

Fruit sleuths and nursery owners are fighting to save our nation's apple heritagebefore it's too late.

Inside, a sweet, sticky fruit wraps around a hard pit.

The fruit supply this season will in all probability be unusually light.

If you stick to bottled water and avoid ice and raw fruit and veg, you should generally be fine for a short trip.

New study shows that coffee may be a source of dietary fiber, but that does not mean you should give up vegetables and fruit.

Most blueberries grown for fruit are also handsome shrubs suitable for hedges or shrub borders.

Setting short-term goals then quickly testing to see if they will bear fruit is similarly absurd.

The researchers believe that fruit bats may have contaminated fruit that then fell into the pigpens.

Holds its fruit up off the ground, avoiding fruit rot.

It's the end of the dry season, and there's little bambu fruit on the ground.

Scientists have figured out the genetic basis of seedless fruit.

Vegetables, fruit and even meats can be preserved using the pickling process to keep them good for months after their peak.

Learn how and where to plant to get the best fruit results.

His fruit emerged from a process that's both more sophisticated and far less controversial.

There will be no scarcity of fruit in the markets of this city this week.

To me it seemed that folklorists have only gone after the low-hanging fruit in this enterprise.

And people hand-pick their fresh fruit and vegetables from hand-cart hawkers and pavement vendors.

The quality, shape, flavour and size of the raspberry fruit are all directly tied to the efficiency of the pollinators.

As an understocked purveyor of large dried fruit might say, we're out of big dates for a while.

The fruit trade, both foreign and domestic, has within a short period of years grown to be one of great importance.

As a result, she can collect the fruit in this situation.

The fruit is so smelly that it isn't allowed in many public places.

Rice wine with fruit and honey is common brew in jars in the hill and plain tribals.

How to grow delicious vegetables, herbs, and fruit at home.

One fridge has holes and pattern on the door as a fruit shelf.

By exposing fruit flies to alcohol, researchers hope to gain genetic insight into human behavior.

Recent changes of government strategy are now bearing fruit.

The licorice-flavored seeds of the star anise fruit may now be a major weapon against global influenza.

Mistaking them for berries, birds pluck the seeds from fruit and excrete them over a wide territory.

The fillings include vanilla or chocolate custard, fruit fillings, or sweetened cream cheese.

Most blueberries grown for fruit are also handsome shrubs suitable for hedges or.

The leaves and stems are poisonous, but the fruit is eminently edible.

And then there is the story of the other fruit of her womb.

Vegetable and fruit scraps, paper and tea bags are among the items.

Now the team is showing abundant fruit from its labor.

The fruit didn't originate here, but the region produces more and probably better figs than almost anywhere else.

Many viburnums are grown for their flower display, a few for their showy fruit.

Today, airy cottages with lawns and fruit trees built for the workers still dominate the streets.

Your fruit bowl and recycling bin may draw flying pests, especially fruit flies.

We also survived on fruit and berries in between kills of high protein and fat.

Commonly seen on fruit trees, this problem has no chemical cure.

Raisins or other dried fruit can be a real pick-me-up and.

The fruit is absolutely delicious and makes superb jam.

There's been no evidence of animals seeking out naturally fermented fruit in the wild-until now.

The joker in the deck is a vervet monkey who also likes the fruit the staff puts out.

Our tasters preferred the smoother texture that results from peeling the fruit.

My usual dosing for a cold is lots of fruit zinger tea, a hot bath before bed, an antihistamine and an acetaminophen.

They also plant fruit trees, rubber trees, and vegetables.

Instead their natural fruit aromas more specifically define their taste.

Unusual island crows wandered about, as ready to munch on fruit as rob a nest or scavenge leftovers.

Certainly a parent can injure a child in more ways than physically, and those injuries can bear worse fruit.

Avoid compost bin odor by adding enough brown composting material to balance wet fruit and vegetable waste.

From high-fructose corn syrup, from sucrose, from fruit juices etc.

Knott's research has shown that females only conceive during periods of high fruit production and nutritional intake.

They then cloned the genetic material and eventually used fruit fly cells to produce the protein in bulk.

The resulting deeply purple fruit promoted longer lives when fed to laboratory mice.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

fruit (fruːt)

—n
1.	botany the ripened ovary of a flowering plant, containing one or more seeds. It may be dry, as in the poppy, or fleshy, as in the peach
2.	any fleshy part of a plant, other than the above structure, that supports the seeds and is edible, such as the strawberry
3.	the specialized spore-producing structure of plants that do not bear seeds
4.	any plant product useful to man, including grain, vegetables, etc
5.	(often plural) the result or consequence of an action or effort
6.	old-fashioned, slang (Brit) chap; fellow: used as a term of address
7.	slang chiefly (Brit) a person considered to be eccentric or insane
8.	slang chiefly (US), (Canadian) a male homosexual
9.	archaic offspring of man or animals; progeny

—vb
10.	to bear or cause to bear fruit

[C12: from Old French, from Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, from frūī to enjoy]

'fruitlike

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

fruit

late 12c., from O.Fr. fruit, from L. fructus "fruit, produce, profit," from frug-, stem of frui "to use, enjoy" (cognate with O.E. brucan "to enjoy," see brook (v.)). Older sense preserved in fruits of one's labor. Originally in English meaning vegetables as well. Modern narrower

EXPAND

sense is from early 13c. Meaning "odd person, eccentric" is from 1910; that of "male homosexual" is from 1935.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

fruit (fr

t) Pronunciation Key
The ripened ovary of a flowering plant that contains the seeds, sometimes fused with other parts of the plant. Fruits can be dry or fleshy. Berries, nuts, grains, pods, and drupes are fruits. ◇ Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries alone, such as the tomato and pea pod, are called true fruits. ◇ Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries and other parts such as the receptacle or bracts, as in the apple, are called accessory fruits or false fruits. See also aggregate fruit , multiple fruit , simple fruit., See Note at berry.

Our Living Language : To most of us, a fruit is a plant part that is eaten as a dessert or snack because it is sweet, but to a botanist a fruit is a mature ovary of a plant, and as such it may or may not taste sweet. All species of flowering plants produce fruits that contain seeds. A peach, for example, contains a pit that can grow into a new peach tree, while the seeds known as peas can grow into another pea vine. To a botanist, apples, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, pea pods, cucumbers, and winged maple seeds are all fruits. A vegetable is simply part of a plant that is grown primarily for food. Thus, the leaf of spinach, the root of a carrot, the flower of broccoli, and the stalk of celery are all vegetables. In everyday, nonscientific speech we make the distinction between sweet plant parts (fruits) and nonsweet plant parts (vegetables). This is why we speak of peppers and cucumbers and squash—all fruits in the eyes of a botanist—as vegetables.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

fruit definition

In botany, the part of a seed-bearing plant that contains the fertilized seeds capable of generating a new plant (see fertilization). Fruit develops from the female part of the plant. Apples, peaches, tomatoes, and many other familiar foods are fruits.

Slang Dictionary

fruit definition

n.
a strange person. (Now overwhelmed by sense 2.) : Ted is such a fruit.
n.
and fruiter. a homosexual male. (Usually rude and derogatory.) : Bob thinks that you-know-who is a fruit.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Easton

Bible Dictionary

Fruit definition

a word as used in Scripture denoting produce in general, whether vegetable or animal. The Hebrews divided the fruits of the land into three classes:, (1.) The fruit of the field, "corn-fruit" (Heb. dagan); all kinds of grain and pulse. (2.) The fruit of the vine, "vintage-fruit" (Heb. tirosh); grapes, whether moist or dried. (3.) "Orchard-fruits" (Heb. yitshar), as dates, figs, citrons, etc. Injunctions concerning offerings and tithes were expressed by these Hebrew terms alone (Num. 18:12; Deut. 14:23). This word "fruit" is also used of children or offspring (Gen. 30:2; Deut. 7:13; Luke 1:42; Ps. 21:10; 132:11); also of the progeny of beasts (Deut. 28:51; Isa. 14:29). It is used metaphorically in a variety of forms (Ps. 104:13; Prov. 1:31; 11:30; 31:16; Isa. 3:10; 10:12; Matt. 3:8; 21:41; 26:29; Heb. 13:15; Rom. 7:4, 5; 15:28). The fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23; Eph. 5:9; James 3:17, 18) are those gracious dispositions and habits which the Spirit produces in those in whom he dwells and works.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

fruit

see bear fruit; forbidden fruit.