tomato
UK /təˈmɑː.təʊ/ · US /təˈmeɪ.toʊ/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms tomatoes tomatos tomatoing tomatoed tomatoe tomater 'mater
- noun A widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.
- noun The savory fruit of this plant, most often red when ripe, treated as a vegetable in horticulture and cooking. “He was chopping a tomato to put in the salad.”
- noun A shade of red, the colour typical of a ripe tomato.
- noun (slang) An attractive woman.
- noun (slang) A stupid act or person.
- adjective Of a shade of red, the colour of a ripe tomato.
- verb (transitive, rare) To pelt with tomatoes.
- verb (transitive, rare, cooking) To add tomatoes to (a dish).
Synonyms
golden apple love apple wolf's peach tomato plant Lycopersicon esculentum
Etymology
Variant of earlier tomate, from Spanish tomate, from Classical Nahuatl tomatl, from Proto-Nahuan *toma-tl. Compare tomatillo.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The fruit of a plant of the Nightshade family (Lycopersicum esculentun); also, the plant itself. The fruit, which is called also love apple, is usually of a rounded, flattened form, but often irregular in shape. It is of a bright red or yellow color, and is eaten either cooked or uncooked. Tomato gall (Zoöl.), a large gall consisting of a mass of irregular swellings on the stems and leaves of grapevines. They are yellowish green, somewhat tinged with red, and produced by the larva of a small two-winged fly (Lasioptera vitis).
Etymology [Sp. or Pg. tomate, of American Indian origin; cf. Mexican tomail.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tomato”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details