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Definition of plum - 11 dictionary results
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plum

1  [pluhm] noun, adjective, plum⋅mer, plum⋅mest.
Use plum in a Sentence
–noun
1. the drupaceous fruit of any of several trees belonging to the genus Prunus, of the rose family, having an oblong stone.
2. the tree itself.
3. any of various other trees bearing a plumlike fruit.
4. the fruit itself.
5. a sugarplum.
6. a raisin, as in a cake or pudding.
7. a deep purple varying from bluish to reddish.
8. Informal. an excellent or desirable thing, as a fine position: The choicest plums went to his old cronies.
9. Informal. an unanticipated large increase in money or property, as an unexpected legacy; a windfall: The company offered bonuses and other plums.
10. Also called displacer. a large stone used in massive concrete construction.
–adjective
11. extremely desirable, rewarding, profitable, or the like: a plum job in the foreign service.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE plūme (c. G Pflaume) ≪ Gk proûmnon plum, proúmnē plum tree; cf. prune 1

Related forms:
plumlike, adjective

plum

2  [pluhm]
–adjective, adverb
plumb (defs. 2–6).

Plum

  [pluhm]
–noun
a city in SW Pennsylvania. 25,390.

plumb

  [pluhm]
–noun
1. a small mass of lead or other heavy material, as that suspended by a line and used to measure the depth of water or to ascertain a vertical line. Compare plumb line.
–adjective
2. true according to a plumb line; perpendicular.
3. Informal. downright or absolute.
–adverb
4. in a perpendicular or vertical direction.
5. exactly, precisely, or directly.
6. Informal. completely or absolutely: She was plumb mad. You're plumb right.
–verb (used with object)
7. to test or adjust by a plumb line.
8. to make vertical.
9. Shipbuilding. horn (def. 31).
10. to sound with or as with a plumb line.
11. to measure (depth) by sounding.
12. to examine closely in order to discover or understand: to plumb someone's thoughts.
13. to seal with lead.
14. to weight with lead.
15. to provide (a house, building, apartment, etc.) with plumbing.
–verb (used without object)
16. to work as a plumber.
—Idiom
17. out of or off plumb, not corresponding to the perpendicular; out of true.
Also, plum (for defs. 2–6).

Origin:
1250–1300; ME plumbe, prob. < AF *plombe < VL *plumba, for L plumbum lead

Related forms:
plumb⋅a⋅ble, adjective
plumbless, adjective
plumbness, noun

Synonyms:
2. vertical, straight, square.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To plum
plum 1   (plŭm)   
n.  
    1. Any of several shrubs or small trees of the genus Prunus, bearing smooth-skinned, fleshy, edible fruit with a single hard-shelled stone that encloses the seed.
    2. The fruit of any of these trees.
    3. Any of several trees bearing plumlike fruit.
    4. The fruit of such a tree.
    1. Any of several trees bearing plumlike fruit.
    2. The fruit of such a tree.
  3. A raisin, when added to a pudding or cake.
  4. A sugarplum.
  5. A dark purple to deep reddish purple.
  6. An especially desirable position, assignment, or reward: an ambassadorship granted as a political plum.

[Middle English, from Old English plūme, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, from neuter pl. of Latin prūnum.]
plum 2   (plŭm)   
adv.  Variant of plumb.
adj.  Variant of plumb.
plumb   (plŭm)   
n.  
  1. A weight on the end of a line, used to determine water depth.
  2. A weight on the end of a line, used especially by masons and carpenters to establish a true vertical.
adv.  
  1. In a vertical or perpendicular line.
  2. Informal Directly; squarely: fell plumb in the middle of the puddle.
  3. also plum Informal Utterly; completely: plumb worn out. See Note at right.
adj.  
  1. Exactly vertical. See Synonyms at vertical.
  2. also plum Informal Utter; absolute; sheer: a plumb fool.
v.   plumbed, plumb·ing, plumbs

v.   tr.
  1. To determine the depth of with a plumb; sound.
  2. To test the verticality or alignment of with a plumb.
  3. To straighten or make perpendicular: plumb up the wall.
  4. To examine closely or deeply; probe: "Shallow ideas are plumbed and discarded" (Gilbert Highet).
  5. To seal with lead.
v.   intr.
To work as a plumber.

[Middle English, lead, a plumb, from Old French plomb, from Latin plumbum, lead.]
plumb'a·ble adj., plumb'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Plum

Plum\, n. Something likened to a plum in desirableness; a good or choice thing of its kind, as among appointments, positions, parts of a book, etc.

Plum

Plum\, n. [AS. pl[=u]me, fr. L. prunum; akin to Gr. ?, ?. Cf. Prune a dried plum.]

1. (Bot.) The edible drupaceous fruit of the Prunus domestica, and of several other species of Prunus; also, the tree itself, usually called plum tree.

The bullace, the damson, and the numerous varieties of plum, of our gardens, although growing into thornless trees, are believed to be varieties of the blackthorn, produced by long cultivation. --G. Bentham.

Note: Two or three hundred varieties of plums derived from the Prunus domestica are described; among them the greengage, the Orleans, the purple gage, or Reine Claude Violette, and the German prune, are some of the best known.

Note: Among the true plums are;

Beach plum, the Prunus maritima, and its crimson or purple globular drupes,

Bullace plum. See Bullace.

Chickasaw plum, the American Prunus Chicasa, and its round red drupes.

Orleans plum, a dark reddish purple plum of medium size, much grown in England for sale in the markets.

Wild plum of America, Prunus Americana, with red or yellow fruit, the original of the Iowa plum and several other varieties. Among plants called plum, but of other genera than Prunus, are;

Australian plum, Cargillia arborea and C. australis, of the same family with the persimmon.

Blood plum, the West African H[ae]matostaphes Barteri.

Cocoa plum, the Spanish nectarine. See under Nectarine.

Date plum. See under Date.

Gingerbread plum, the West African Parinarium macrophyllum.

Gopher plum, the Ogeechee lime.

Gray plum, Guinea plum. See under Guinea.

Indian plum, several species of Flacourtia.

2. A grape dried in the sun; a raisin.

3. A handsome fortune or property; formerly, in cant language, the sum of [pounds]100,000 sterling; also, the person possessing it.

Plum bird, Plum budder (Zo["o]l.), the European bullfinch.

Plum gouger (Zo["o]l.), a weevil, or curculio (Coccotorus scutellaris), which destroys plums. It makes round holes in the pulp, for the reception of its eggs. The larva bores into the stone and eats the kernel.

Plum weevil (Zo["o]l.), an American weevil which is very destructive to plums, nectarines cherries, and many other stone fruits. It lays its eggs in crescent-shaped incisions made with its jaws. The larva lives upon the pulp around the stone. Called also turk, and plum curculio. See Illust. under Curculio.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : plum
Spanish: ciruela,
German: die Pflaume,
Japanese: プラム
More Translations »

plum 
O.E. plume, early Gmc. borrowing (cf. M.Du. prume, O.H.G. phruma, Ger. Pflaume) from V.L. *pruna, from L. prunum "plum," from Gk. prounon, later form of proumnon, from an Asiatic language. Change of pr- to pl- is unique to Gmc. Meaning "something desirable" is first recorded 1780, probably in ref. to the sugar-rich bits of a plum pudding, etc.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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PLUM
A compiler for a substantial subset of PL/I for the Univac 1100, from the University of Maryland.
["PL/I Programming with PLUM", M.V. Zelkowitz, Paladin House, 1978].
(1995-02-23)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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