Definitions for: Vegetable


[n] edible seeds or roots or stems or leaves or bulbs or tubers or nonsweet fruits of any of numerous herbaceous plant
[n] any of various herbaceous plants cultivated for an edible part such as the fruit or the root of the beet or the leaf of spinach or the seeds of bean plants or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower
[adj] of the nature of or characteristic of or derived from plants; "decaying vegetable matter"



Webster (1913) Definition: Veg`e*ta*ble, a. [F. v['e]g['e]table growing,
capable of growing, formerly also, as a noun, a vegetable,
from L. vegetabilis enlivening, from vegetare to enliven,
invigorate, quicken, vegetus enlivened, vigorous, active,
vegere to quicken, arouse, to be lively, akin to vigere to be
lively, to thrive, vigil watchful, awake, and probably to E.
wake, v. See Vigil, Wake, v.]
1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or
produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable
growths, juices, etc.

Blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold.
--Milton.

2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable
kingdom.

Vegetable alkali (Chem.), an alkaloid.

Vegetable brimstone. (Bot.) See Vegetable sulphur, below.


Vegetable butter (Bot.), a name of several kinds of
concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian
butter tree, the African shea tree, and the {Pentadesma
butyracea}, a tree of the order Guttifer[ae], also
African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of
cocoa (Theobroma).

Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in
Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained
from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris.

Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory.

Vegetable jelly. See Pectin.

Vegetable kingdom. (Nat. Hist.) See the last Phrase, below.


Vegetable leather.
(a) (Bot.) A shrubby West Indian spurge ({Euphorbia
punicea}), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts.
(b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather.

Vegetable marrow (Bot.), an egg-shaped gourd, commonly
eight to ten inches long. It is noted for the very tender
quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable
in England. It has been said to be of Persian origin, but
is now thought to have been derived from a form of the
American pumpkin.

Vegetable oyster (Bot.), the oyster plant. See under
Oyster.

Vegetable parchment, papyrine.

Vegetable sheep (Bot.), a white woolly plant ({Raoulia
eximia}) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large
fleecy cushions on the mountains.

Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained
from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree
(Chorisia speciosa). It us used for various purposes, as
for stuffing, and the like, but is incapable of being spun
on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers.

Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof.

Vegetable sulphur, the fine highly inflammable spores of
the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum); witch.

Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained
from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow,
obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. {Indian
vegetable tallow} is a name sometimes given to piney
tallow.

Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of
certain plants, as the bayberry.



Vegetable kingdom (Nat. Hist.), that primary division of
living things which includes all plants. The classes of
the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by
various botanists. The following is one of the best of the
many arrangements of the principal subdivisions.


Veg"e*ta*ble, n.
1. (Biol.) A plant. See Plant.

2. A plant used or cultivated for food for man or domestic
animals, as the cabbage, turnip, potato, bean, dandelion,
etc.; also, the edible part of such a plant, as prepared
for market or the table.



Note: Vegetables and fruits are sometimes loosely
distinguished by the usual need of cooking the former
for the use of man, while the latter may be eaten raw;
but the distinction often fails, as in the case of
quinces, barberries, and other fruits, and lettuce,
celery, and other vegetables. Tomatoes if cooked are
vegetables, if eaten raw are fruits.

Synonyms: rootlike, seedlike, stalklike, stemlike, vegetal, vegetational, vegetative, veggie

Antonyms: animal, mineral

See Also: artichoke, artichoke, artichoke heart, artichoke plant, asparagus, bamboo shoot, beet, Beta vulgaris, cardoon, cardoon, celery, common beet, cruciferous vegetable, cucumber, cuke, Cynara cardunculus, Cynara scolymus, earthnut, fennel, finocchio, Florence fennel, garden truck, globe artichoke, globe artichoke, green, green goods, green groceries, greens, gumbo, herb, herb, herbaceous plant, herbaceous plant, leafy vegetable, leek, legume, mushroom, okra, onion, pieplant, plantain, potherb, prickly-seeded spinach, produce, pumpkin, rabbit food, raw vegetable, rhubarb, root vegetable, solanaceous vegetable, spinach, spinach plant, Spinacia oleracea, squash, truffle

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