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Plum   /pləm/   Listen
noun
Plum  n.  
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." 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 Cargillia australis, of the same family with the persimmon. Blood plum, the West African Haematostaphes 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 £100,000 sterling; also, the person possessing it.
4.
Something likened to a plum in desirableness; a good or choice thing of its kind, as among appointments, positions, parts of a book, etc.; as, the mayor rewarded his cronies with cushy plums, requiring little work for handsome pay
5.
A color resembling that of a plum; a slightly grayish deep purple, varying somewhat in its red or blue tint.
Plum bird, Plum budder (Zool.), the European bullfinch.
Plum gouger (Zool.), 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 (Zool.), 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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Plum" Quotes from Famous Books



... have to eat? Lordy mussy! Mist'ess! us had everything. Summertime dere wuz beans, cabbage, squashes, irish 'tatoes, roas'en ears, 'matoes, cucumbers, cornbread, and fat meat, but de Nigger boys, dey wuz plum fools 'bout hog head. In winter dey et sweet 'tatoes, collards, turnips and sich, but I et lak de white folkses. I sho does lak 'possums and rabbits. Yessum, some of de slaves had gyardens, some of ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... race described by some as blotting paper and by others as plum pudding dogs. Every line of his body had been formed by hundreds of years of tradition. You can find his ancestors in tapestries and petit point in Italian primitives and Flemish family groups, nestling in voluminous satin petticoats, or running at the heels of skating children—moving ...
— Balloons • Elizabeth Bibesco

... speak: "Miss Viola, what is so beautiful as an apple tree in bloom? Our heavenly Father seems to have mixed the elements of nature to make this blossom with a skill not seen elsewhere. It combines the pure whiteness of the plum or cherry with the delicate color of the pink or rose. How beautiful is the shading! How the pink tint improves the white and the white the pink! Every separate blossom is fit to adorn the head of a fairy; ...
— The Kentucky Ranger • Edward T. Curnick

... politeness he made me sit down, picking out my chair, the most comfortable in the room, then taking the next best for himself. He fitted into it as tightly as a ripe plum into its skin, and talked with one leg crossed over the other and swinging, the points of his brown fingers joined. I was ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson

... which set in during the week-end has been marked by the arrival of the cuckoo, which was heard at Shanklin on Saturday and on Sunday morning at Staplers, bursting into full flower of plum and pear trees, and general activity in the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, April 7, 1920 • Various


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