Definition of "fruit" in English

noun

1. (botany) A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically:

2. Any sweet or sour, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit (see former sense) even if it does not develop from a floral ovary.

3. An end result, effect, or consequence; advantageous or disadvantageous result.

   • His long nights in the office eventually bore fruit when his business boomed and he was given a raise.
   • He spent his retirement enjoying the fruits of his labour.

4. (attributive) Of, belonging to, related to, or having fruit or its characteristics; (of living things) producing or consuming fruit.

   • fresh-squeezed fruit juice
   • a fruit salad
   • an artificial fruit flavor
   • a fruit tree

5. (dated, colloquial, derogatory) A homosexual man, especially an effeminate one.

6. (derogatory, figurative) An effeminate man.

7. (archaic) Offspring from a sexual union.

   • The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.
   • fruit of one's loins

8. (informal) A crazy person.

verb

1. To produce fruit, seeds, or spores.