Definition of "pepper" in English

noun

1. A plant of the family Piperaceae.

2. (uncountable) A spice prepared from the fermented, dried, unripe berries of this plant.

3. (UK, US, Ireland and Canada) A fruit of the capsicum plant: red, green, yellow or white, hollow and containing seeds, and in a wide range of mild (sweet, nonspicy) to hot (spicy) varieties.

4. (baseball) A game used by baseball players to warm up where fielders standing close to a batter rapidly return the batted ball to be hit again

   • Some ballparks have signs saying "No pepper games".

5. (cryptography) A randomly-generated value that is added to another value (such as a password) prior to hashing. Unlike a salt, a new one is generated for each value and it is held separately from the value.

6. (boxing, slang) A beating; a thrashing.

7. (MLE, slang) A shotgun.

verb

1. (transitive) To add pepper to.

2. (transitive) To strike with something made up of small particles.

3. (transitive) To cover with lots of (something made up of small things).

   • After the hailstorm, the beach was peppered with holes.

4. (transitive) To add (something) at frequent intervals.

   • He liked to pepper long words throughout his conversation.

5. (transitive, slang) To beat or thrash.

6. (cryptography) To use a pepper (type of value used prior to hashing).

7. (transitive, MLE, slang) To shoot (upon) with the dotty.

8. (transitive, slang) To write accents or disambiguating marks in script.