| 释义 |
▪ I. plum, n.|plʌm|
Forms: α. 1 plúme, (in comb.) plúm-, 4–5 plowme, 5 plowmbe, 6 ploume, 8–9 north. dial. ploum, ploom. β. 4–6 plome, 4–7 plom, 5 (in comb.) plomb-, 5–6 plomme; 4–7 plumbe, 5–7 plumme, 6–9 plumb, 4– plum.
[c gray][OE. plúme fem. plum (earlier plúmæ, -ę, plum, fruit and tree) corresp. to OLG. *plûma, MLG. plûme (LG. plumme, EFris. plûme, plûm), ON. plóma f. (? from OE.); OHG. *phlûma fem. plum (pflûmo m. plum-tree), MHG. pflûme, Ger. pflaume; variants of OHG. phrûma, pfrûma f., OLG. *prûma, MLG., LG. prûme, MDu. prûme, Du. pruim f.; the forms in pr- being the original, a. late L. or Romanic prūna f., for L. prūnum neut., a. later Gr. προῦνον, for cl. Gr. προῦµνον plum. (Cf. L. prūnus fem., Gr. προύµνη, προύνη plum-tree.) The late L. prūna gave also Pr. prūna, F. prune plum: see prune. The shortening of the vowel in Eng. is found from the 14th c., but the long vowel occurs in Levins 1570, and is still repr. by north. Eng. and Sc. (plaʊm[/c], plum); cf. Eng. thumb, OE. þúma, north. Eng. and Sc. theaum, thoum, thoom; the vowel is shortened also in LG. plumme, Sw. plommon, Da. blomme. The form plýme given in OE. glosses as = prunus and prunum is explained by Pogatscher from L. prūneus: cf. It. prugna plum, prugno plum-tree.
The change of pr- to pl- is found only in the Teutonic forms, or in med.L. written in England, etc.: see plunas (? plunus), plumum in Corpus Gl., plumnus (Wr.-Wulcker 269/30). The Celtic forms, Cornish pluman, Ir. pluma, Gael. plumbais, -bas, are evidently from Eng. The change of n to m in prūna, prūma is attributed by Kluge and Franck to the influence of the preceding labial; Meyer-Lübke suggests derivation from Gr. προῦµνον. Prume in south-east French dialects may be influenced by German.]
1. a. The fruit of the tree Prunus domestica, a roundish fleshy drupe of varying size and colour, covered with a glaucous mealy bloom, and having a somewhat flat pointed stone and sweet pulp.
αc725Corpus Gloss. 1600 in O.E.T., Plumum, plumæ. c1000ælfric Gram. vii. (Z.) 20 Hoc prunum, seo plyme [v.r. plume]. a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 1375 Medlers, plowmes, perys, chesteyns. 1483Cath. Angl. 284/1 A Plowmbe (A. Plowme), prunum. 1570Levins Manip. 219/35 A Ploume, prunum. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Ploum, a plum. a1907Mod. Sc. Soor plooms.
β1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xiii. 221 As pees-coddes and pere-Ionettes, plomes and chiries. 14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 647/30 Hoc prunum, plumme. 14..Nom. ibid. 715/20 Hoc prunum, a plum. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop i. vi, Men sayen that it is not good to ete plommes with his lord. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §140 As for cheryes, dampsons, bulleys, plummes, and suche other. 1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. 44 b, Here haue they peares, and plumbs. 1577― Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 97 There are sundry sortes of Plomes. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xlvii. 720 The fruite is called..in Englishe, a Plumme or Prune. 1601Holland Pliny xv. xiii. 436 To come now to Plums, there is a world of them: some of sundrie colours, others blacke, and some againe white. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 215 He knew to..tame to Plumbs the Sourness of the Sloes. 1809N. Pinkney Trav. France 222 In every hedge..were medlars, plumbs, cherries and maples. 1870Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 182 Dried plums, under the names of prunes and French plums, form an important article of commerce.
†b. Phrase. the bloom or blue of the plum: delicate freshness, charm: cf. bloom n. 4 b. Obs.
1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. II. xlix. 215 The Maids keep their Teeth very white, till they have lost the blue of their Plumb, and then they dye them as black as Jet. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. 90 She has quite lost the Blue on the Plumb.
2. The tree bearing this fruit, Prunus domestica (family Rosaceæ).
P. domestica, the cultivated or garden plum in its many varieties, and the European wild plum or bullace, P. insititia, are now considered to be specifically identical with the Blackthorn or sloe-bush, P. spinosa, the three forms being referred to a single species, P. communis.
a700Epinal Gloss. 822 in O.E.T., Prunus, plumæ. (So Erfurt Gl.) c725Corpus Gloss. 1664 Prunus, plume. c1350Nominale Gall.-Angl. 681 (E.E.T.S.) Bolas plumbe and cirne. c1420Pallad. on Husb. xii. 247 In peche Is graffid plomme. 1657Austen Fruit Trees i. 66 It is the custome (of late) to make..hedges of Quodlings, Plums, and vines. 1718J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. (1730) II. xxiii. §32 If an Abricot be grafted upon a Plumb. 1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. vii. (1794) 75 The genus plum, comprehending the apricot and cherry. 1899Nora Hopper in Westm. Gaz. 1 Mar. 10/1 Blossom on the plum,..Leaves upon the cherry.
3. With qualifying words.
a. Applied to many species (and varieties) of the genus Prunus:
beach p. of the Atlantic coast of U.S., P. maritima; Canada p., P. americana (Miller Plant-n.); cherry or myrobella p., P. Myrobalana; chickasaw p. of N. America, P. Chicasa (Treas. Bot.); damascene, † damasco, damask, or damson p.: see damask, damson; Japanese p., P. japonica; see also b; Morocco p., ? = damson; † muscle p., a purple variety of the plum; wild p., in Britain, P. insititia or spinosa; in N. America, P. americana and P. subcordata (Treas. Bot. and Miller Plant-n.); see also b. See also horse-plum, pear-plum, etc.
1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 188 *Beach Plumb (Prunus maritima). 1856Whittier Ranger x, Where the purple beach-plum mellows.
1866Treas. Bot. 933 P[runus] myrobalana, which is named *Cherry Plum, probably from its colour, is a species from Canada. 1904Westm. Gaz. 9 Jan. 8/1 This year there are fresh cherry-plums from Argentina on sale.
1657Austen Fruit Trees i. 57 The *Damasco Plum is a good fruit, and the trees beare well.
1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 298 The black Damascen, the *Morocco, the Barbary, the Myrobalan, the Apricock Plumb, a delicate Plumb that parts clean from the Stone.
1626Bacon Sylva §509 All your dainty Plummes, are a little dry, and come from the Stone; As the *Muscle-Plumme.
1709J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 105 The *wild Plums of America are of several sorts. 1838E. Flagg Far West II. 177 Endless thickets of the wild plum..were to be seen. 1863R. Henning Let. 26 Nov. (1966) 146 We sat down under the shade of a wild-plum tree. Ibid., They are not bad, those wild plums; they are about the size of a medlar, quite black in colour, and when ripe they taste very like sloes. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 244 Low mounds... Some are covered with wild-plum bushes. 1925Z. A. Tilghman Dugout 56 Fan being gone after some wild plums down the creek. 1951W. Faulkner Requiem for Nun iii. 213 A mere dusty widening of the trace, trail, pathway in a forest of oak and ash and..wild plum.
b. Extended to many trees resembling the plum, esp. in fruit:
American black p. ? = cocoa p.; Assyrian p. = sebesten p. (Miller Plant-n. 1884); Australian p. or black p. of Illawarra, Cargillia australis, family Ebenaceæ (ibid.); blood p. of Sierra Leone, Hæmatostaphis Barteri, family Anacardiaceæ (Treas. Bot.); Brazilian p., species of Spondias, family Anacardiaceæ (Lee 1760); cocoa p. of tropical America and Africa, Chrysobalanus Icaco (Lee 1760); Darling p., the Red Ironwood of W. Indies and Florida, Reynosia latifolia; East Indian p., Flacourtia cataphracta, and F. Ramontchi (Miller); grey p. or Guinea p., of Sierra Leone, Parinarium excelsum, family Chrysobalanaceæ; of Australia, Cargillia arborea; Jamaica p., a species of Hog-plum, Spondias lutea; Japan or Japanese p. the Loquat; mountain p., Ximenia americana, family Olacaceæ; Port Arthur p., of Tasmania, Cenarrhenes nitida, family Proteaceæ (Treas. Bot.); Queensland p., Owenia venosa, family Meliaceæ; sapodilla p. of West Indies, Sapota Achras; sebesten p., Cordia Myxa and C. latifolia, family Boraginaceæ; Spanish p. of W. Indies and S. Amer., Spondias purpurea (Treas. Bot.); also in the Antilles, Mammea humilis, family Clusiaceæ (Miller); tamarind p., a leguminous tree of E. Indies, Dialium indum; Tasmanian p. = Port Arthur p. (Miller); urucuri p., a S. Amer. palm, Attalea excelsa; wild p. of S. Africa, Pappea capensis, family Sapindaceæ; of N.S. Wales, Sideroxylon australis, family Sapotaceæ; yellow (Spanish) p. of W. Indies = Jamaica p. See also date-plum, gingerbread-plum, hog-plum, olive-plum, persimmon-plum, etc.
1866Treas. Bot. 223 The *Black Plum of Hiawarra (Cargillia australis)..is a slender tree..; the fruits are the size of a large plum, and of dark purple colour.
Ibid., The *Grey Plum (Cargillia arborea) grows to a height of fifty or a hundred feet. Ibid. 846 The fruit of P[arinarium] excelsum is about the size of an Imperatrice plum, covered with a rough skin of a greyish colour, and commonly called the Rough-skin or Grey Plum.
1756P. Browne Jamaica 229 The yellow or *Jamaica Plumb Tree... The fruit is much esteemed by some people.
1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Native Plants 49 *Queensland Plum, Sweet Plum. This plant bears a fine juicy red fruit with a large stone.
1866Treas. Bot. 1018/2 S. Achras yields an edible fruit called in the West Indies the *Sapodilla plum.
1866Brande & Coxe Dict. Sc., etc. II. 937/2 *Sebesten-plum is the fruit of Cordia.
1866Treas. Bot. 397 The *Tamarind Plum of the East Indies, D[ialium] indum, has a delicious pulp resembling that of the Tamarind, but not quite so acid.
1863Bates Nat. Amazon x. (1864) 297 The fruit of this palm ripens on the upper river in April,..similar in size and shape to the date... Vicente shook his head when he saw me one day eating a quantity of the *Urucuri plums.
1880Silver & Co. S. Africa (ed. 3) 139 The..*Wild Plum is the fruit of Pappea Capensis, a tree pretty common in Kaffirland.
1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 305 Hog Plum or *Yellow Spanish Plum of Jamaica, Spondias lutea.—Large tree.
4. a. A dried grape or raisin as used for puddings, cakes, etc.
This use probably arose from the substitution of raisins for dried plums or prunes as an ingredient in plum-broth, -porridge, etc. with retention of the name ‘plum’ for the substituted article. Quotations 1725–1733 prob. belong here.
a1660[Mock sermon] Brewerton Ch. cxix. Ver. xxxi, ‘And they did eat their Plum-pies, and rejoiced exceedingly’, (Bodl. Lib.) p. 6, But there is your Christmas pye and that hath plums in abundance... He that discovered the new Star in Cassiopeia..deserves not half so much to be remembered, as he that first married minced meat and Raisins together. 1725Watts Logic i. vi. §6 A grocer is a man who buys and sells sugar, and plumbs, and spices, for gain. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Plumb, or Plum, in matters of spicery. See Currans and Raisins. 1733Fielding Don Quix. i. vi, 'Tis not only plumbs that make a pudding. 17..[see plum-pie 1]. 1755Johnson, Plum,..2. Raisin; grape dried in the sun. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 686 Children, to whom you give a pill wrapped up in a raisin, will suck the plum and spit out the medicine. 1804Ann & Jane Taylor Poems Inf. Minds, Plum-cake, While fingers and thumbs, for the sweetmeats and plums, Were hunting and digging beside. a1845Hood Son & Heir v, A Grocer's plum might disappoint. 1884S. Dowell Hist. Taxat. IV. i. vii. 37 The dried grapes..we term simply raisins when used for eating uncooked, and plums when they form an ingredient in the famous English plum pudding.
b. = sugar-plum. (First quot. doubtful.)
1694Congreve Double Dealer iii. iv, So when you've swallowed the potion, you sweeten your mouth with a plum. 1790Cowper My Mother's Pict. 61 Thy morning bounties ere I left my home, The biscuit, or confectionary plum.
c. fig. A stone or mass of rock embedded in a matrix of later origin; a pebble in a conglomerate; also, a stone embedded in concrete.
a1817T. Dwight Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821) II. 355 The plums, or stones, embosomed by the matrix, are exactly of the same kinds, which are found everywhere in the earth adjacent. 1894Times 22 Sept. 13/3 The interior was filled in with concrete deposited in layers of nine inches, while large single stones, technically called ‘plums’, weighing, as a rule, about three-and-a-half tons, were placed as close together as possible and bedded in mortar.
d. fig. A ‘good thing’, a tit-bit; one of the best things to be found in a book or article; one of the best or choicest things among situations or appointments; one of the ‘prizes’ of life; also, the pick or best of a collection of things, animals, etc.; the best part of a musical work.
1825M. Edgeworth Harry & Lucy, Concluded IV. vii. 167 It is only the stupid parts of books which tire one. All that is necessary is to pick out the plums. 1853Lytton My Novel viii. i, Much too old a world to allow any Jack Horner to pick out its plums for his own personal gratification. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. ii. xvi, To fight it away for the sake of getting some sort of plum that he might divide with his mother and the girls. 1887in G. Stimpson Bk. about Amer. Politics (1952) 258 The boys enjoying the plums will support anybody who is good for him or them. 1888‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms v, There were some real plums among the horses. 1889Academy 2 Nov. 280 The reviewer who picks all the ‘plums’ out of a book is a person who is regarded with reasonable terror and resentment by both authors and publishers. 1901Scotsman 5 Sept. 4/8 The posts named are justly regarded as plums of the Indian Civil Service. 1937W. H. Saumarez Smith Let. 16 Oct. in Young Man's Country (1977) ii. 94 It [sc. the job] is definitely one of the three plums for the young civilian. 1967Boston Herald 8 May 24/5 José has played his cards just right, and a rich little plum named Lucy falls into his outstretched arms. 1973Times 20 Oct. 13/6 Its slow movement is its ‘plum’, a glorious, unbroken song. 1978Time 3 July 42/2 Center directors receive only $11,000 a year, but Mendel offers them a plum: their kids can attend free.
5. a. The sum of {pstlg}100,000. slang. Now rare.
1689–1702Earl of Ailesbury Mem. (1890) 499 Those even that had nothing at the Revolution had the reputation after of being worth one hundred, and others two hundred thousand pounds. The first sum was christened one plum, and the last, two. Ibid. 634 In King William's time..the tally trade alone brought in to some a hundred thousand pounds, which they then called a plum. 1709Prior Ladle, Moral, The Miser must make up his Plumb, And dares not touch the hoarded sum. 1710Steele Tatler No. 244 ⁋6 An honest Gentleman who..was worth half a Plumb. 1789J. Belknap in M. Cutler's Life, etc. (1888) II. 252 The revenue is now about {pstlg}90 plum, to be increased by funding. 1818Gentl. Mag. LXXXVIII. 201/2 Though the personal effects do not exceed 140,000l. there are real estates sufficient to complete the second plumb. 1898Besant Orange Girl i. v, The only son of Sir Peter Halliday..the heir to a plum.
†b. transf. One who is possessed of {pstlg}100,000.
1709Addison Tatler No. 100 ⁋3 Several who were Plumbs, or very near it, became Men of moderate Fortunes. 1746Fielding True Patriot No. 11 Wks. 1775 IX. 322 A thing highly eligible by every good man, i.e. every Plumb. 1774Westm. Mag. II. 238 Warm Citizens with the insolence of a plumb in their countenances.
6. = plum-colour.
1878Trans. Illinois Dept. Agric. XIV. 210 [Siamese Swine] varied in color from deep rich plum to dark slate and black. 1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 3/1 Cashmere... All the fashionable colors..golden brown, medium plum, heliotrope. 1940Graves & Hodge Long Week-End xvi. 278 Victorian colours—plum, maroon, and violet—were in favour. 1970Guardian 5 June 9/2 She has featherweight car rugs in brushed wool in plum and purple at a modest three guineas each.
7. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib., as plum-bloom, plum-blow (blow n.3), plum brandy, plum-culture, plum-flower, plum-frumenty, plum-gum, plum-juice, plum-lea, plum-loaf, plum-moth, plum-pattern, plum-season, plum-stock, plum-stone, plum-tart, plum-trade, plum-weevil, plum wine.
b. objective, similative, etc., as plum-feeder, plum-gathering, plum-holder, plum-seller; plum-dark, plum-purple, plum-rich, plum-round adjs.; plum-like adj.c. parasynthetic, as plum-coloured, plum-necked, plum-stained, plum-tinted adjs.d. Special comb.: plum-bird, -budder, local names of the bullfinch; plum-colour, a shade of purple; so plum-coloured a.; plum-fir, a tree, Podocarpus andina, family Taxaceæ; plum-gouger, a weevil (Coccotorus scutellaris); plum-in-the-mouth a. (colloq.), indistinctly articulated, esp. in a manner associated with the British upper classes (of speech, etc.); plum-pockets, a disease of plums in which the fruit grows hollow, without a stone (cf. pocket-plum s.v. pocket n.); plum pox [tr. Bulgarian sharka na slivite (D. Atanasoff 1932, in Godishnik na Sofiïskiya Universitet Agronomski Fakultet XI. 49)], a virus disease of plum trees characterized by yellow blotches on the leaves and pockets of dead tissue in the fruit; also known as sharka; plum rains [tr. Jap. bai-u] = bai-u; applied also to the corresponding rains in southern China. See also plum-broth, plum-cake, etc.
1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., *Plum-bird, the Bullfinch.
Ibid., *Plum-budder.
1897Daily News 12 June 6/2 Other fashionable colours for gloves are Liberty green,..salmon pink, coral red, sky blue, *plum-bloom.
1868Whitman Singing in Spring 23 in Sel. Poems 390 Stems of currants, and *plum-blows, and the aromatic cedar.
1950Chambers's Encycl. IV. 326/1 Plums are grown as fresh fruit and for jam, though some are distilled into slivovice (*plum brandy). 1958A. L. Simon Dict. Wines, Spirits & Liqueurs 147/1 Slivovitz..is very similar to the Alsatian Plum Brandy called Quetsch. 1977H. Fast Immigrants 11 The husband of the Polish woman..hoarded plum brandy.
1882Garden 30 Sept. 288/3 Flowers which change from white to *plum colour. 1898G. B. Shaw You never can Tell iii. 274 The wall decoration of Lincrusta Walton in plum color and bronze lacquer. 1960S. Plath Colossus (1967) 21, I squat..Counting the red stars and those of plum-colour.
1820M. Edgeworth Let. 8 June (1970) 160 Fannys *plum colored [sic] and Harrets lilac tabbinets. 1840Barham Ingol., Jackd. Rheims, The Cardinal drew Off each plum-colour'd shoe.
1902Daily Chron. 5 July 5/2 *Plum-culture is a lottery: for plums either fruit too lightly or they break the tree and glut the market.
1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard. III. 168/2 The *Plum Curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) is about 1/5 in. long,..and has on each wing-case, in the middle, a black, shining hump.
1957L. Durrell Bitter Lemons 103 *Plum-dark mountain roses. 1958― Balthazar i. 13 A single plum-dark sail, moist, palpitant. 1963Glamour Sept. 146 Plum-dark wool frames the soft blue silk collar of the coat, worn over a matching plum-dark flared skirt.
1866Treas. Bot. 496 *Plum Fir, Prumnopitys elegans, [a name proposed by Philippi for Podocarpus andina]. 1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard. III. 172/2 P[odocarpus] andina.., Plum Fir, fr[uit] resembling in form and size the berry of an ordinary White Grape, but in structure that of a Cherry.
1763Brit. Mag. IV. 170 The *plum-firmity and mellow ale at sheep-shearing dwindled into small-beer, and roasted apples.
1928C. Day Lewis Country Comets 25 At the time of *plum-gathering When the hedge is plumy With Traveller's Joy.
1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard. III. 168/2 The second species [of Plum-weevil] (Coccotorus scutellaris) is popularly called the *Plum Gouger.
1730Burdon Pocket Farrier (1735) 82 Take one Ounce of *Plumb Gum beaten very small.
1897W. C. Hazlitt Ourselves 30 The *plum-holders, instead of sharing with their poorer brethren, ask the public to make up the deficiency.
1926D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serpent vi. 118 She spoke rapidly, a rather *plum-in-the-mouth Spanish. 1934S. R. Nelson All about Jazz vii. 163 The lukewarm, plum-in-the-mouth style of some of the white vocalists.
1900J. Hutchinson in Arch. Surg. XI. No. 41. 73 A red *plum-juice colour.
1866Treas. Bot. 844 Its fruit..is called Wilde Pruime (i.e. Wild Plum) from its *plum⁓like eatable flesh.
1879E. Arnold Lt. Asia ii. (1882) 45 The *plum-necked parrots swung from fruit to fruit.
1895Daily News 29 Nov. 2/3 An oviform jar and cover of *plum-pattern.
1891Cent. Dict., Taphrina, a genus of parasitic discomycetous fungi... T. Pruni [causes] the disease of plums known as ‘*plum-pockets’.
1933Rev. Applied Mycol. XII. 230 The disease, which the author [sc. D. Atanasoff] terms *plum pox, was proved to be readily transmissible to healthy trees by grafting. 1943Bull. Min. Agric. & Fish. CXXVI. 64 A single tree bearing foliage with symptoms corresponding to those of Plum Pox..was observed early in August 1934 at East Oakley, Hants. 1952E. Ramsden tr. Gram & Weber's Plant Diseases ii. 204/2 A disease called plum pox, well known in Bulgaria, probably occurs as far north as Bohemia and Holland. 1976Nature 12 Feb. 499/2 The Ministry of Agriculture reported that at least 150 acres of plums have some levels of infection with plum pox (sharka) virus, an aphid-borne virus.
1862G. M. Hopkins Vision of Mermaids (1929), *Plum-purple was the west. 1882Garden 4 Nov. 396/1 The rich-shaded, plum-purple pips.
1922,1945*Plum rains [see bai-u]. 1968G. R. Rumney Climatol. & World's Climates xii. 235/1 The cloudiness, humidity, and generally oppressive conditions accompanying the start of the warm season's heavy rains in southern Japan combine to create a period of depressing, gloomy weather called here, as in south China, the plum rains (Bai-u). 1971Handbk. Aviation Meteorol. (Meteorol. Office) xxiii. 378 In May, tropical air begins to advance northwards and is heralded by cyclonic activity and the widespread ‘plum’ rains of China and Japan.
1932Auden Orators i. 3 The *plum-rich red-earth valley of the Severn.
1581C. T. in Farr S.P. Eliz. (1845) 395, I will not maserate, Saith he, my *plum-round physnomie.
1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 30 An ordinary cheesemonger or *plum-seller.
1922Joyce Ulysses 564 Two trickies Frauenzimmer *plum-stained from pram falling bawling.
1699Evelyn Kal. Hort. (ed. 9) 132 [Graft] Plums, on *Plum-stocks. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 251 Plumb-stocks and Cherry-stocks may be raised from Suckers as well as from Stones.
1770J. Woodforde Diary 12 Oct. (1924) I. 102, I gave them for dinner a..*Plumb Tart and an Apple Tart. c1900Beeton's Every-day Cook. Bk., Plum Tart..Seasonable, with various kins of plums, from the beginning of August to the beginning of October.
1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard. III. 168/1 The flowers and fruits are attacked chiefly by the *Plum Weevil (Rhynchites cupreus) and the Plum Tortrix (Carpocapsa funebrana).
1728E. Smith Compl. Housewife (ed. 2) 208 To make *Plum-wine. Take twenty pound of Malaga raisins..water..damson juice..at 4 or 5 months bottle it. 1976‘M. Delving’ China Expert i. 11 The guest list included..Chinese and Westerners, all..eager to sample the stuffed, glazed chicken and fish in plum wine sauce.
e. passing into adj. = plum-coloured adj.
1922Joyce Ulysses 551 In a flunkey's plum plush coat and kneebreeches, buff stockings and powdered wig. 1930V. Sackville-West Edwardians v. 229 Buttoned into her plum velvet bodice, like the wife of any British tradesman. 1975J. McClure Snake x. 133 There was a white Jaguar, a plum Datsun coupé and a..Land-Rover.
f. (sense 4 d) passing into adj. Choice, valuable, coveted.
1958Listener 21 Aug. 277/1 Was the promotion of Chiappe to the plum governorship an easy method of shedding a dangerous man in a key position? 1959Economist 2 May 455/2 While the aircraft industries of Britain and France are declining for lack of military orders, a plum military contract has been won by a company making its first serious venture into aircraft design since the war. 1966Listener 26 May 746/2 After the Nationalists had come to power, they felt that they had to admit some Afrikaners to their boards and directorates. These were plum appointments and the Boers had been longing for them for years. 1970Financial Times 13 Apr. 10/6 Europe (the present plum client in the German Railways advertising service). 1976Botham & Donnelly Valentino xi. 85 The director..congratulated him on winning the plum role. 1977Time 3 Jan. 50/2 The leader of L.D.P.'s largest faction, whose intellect had won him plum jobs in the Ministry of Finance before he turned to politics in 1952, has probably done exactly that.
Add:[2.] b. The wood of the plum-tree.
1902G. S. Boulger Wood 296 Woods of Commerce... Plum, Sour (Owénia vénosa..). Queensland. Known as ‘Tulip-wood’... Highly coloured. 1920A. L. Howard Man. Timbers of World 228 Plum..is a very handsome wood..reddish-brown, with darker and lighter streaks of the same colour. 1948F. H. Titmuss Conc. Encycl. World Timbers 110 Another timber known as ‘Plum’ is the Sapodilla Plum. This hardwood timber is not of the same botanical family as that producing the true Plum. 1980Early Music Jan. 100 (Advt.), Sets of lute ribs available in figured and plain sycamore, cherry, yew and plum.
▪ II. plum, a.|plʌm|
Also 6 plumme, 7–9 plumb.
[app. f. same root as plum v.]
1. = plump a.1 3. Now dial.
1570North Doni's Philos. ii. 50 This Tenche was so plumme and fatte that shee might well serue him for a good meale. Ibid. iii. 69 Hee is rounde, plumme, fatte, and as full as an Egge. 1591Harington Orl. Fur. vii. xiv, Her necke was round, most plum and large her brest. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. 42 A pretie rounde faced wench..as fat and plum euerie part of her as a plouer.
2. dial. Soft and elastic, as a cushion; well-raised and light, as bread.
1847–78Halliwell, Plum, light, soft. West. 1853N. & Q. 1st Ser. VIII. 65/2 Plum..employed in Devonshire in the sense of ‘soft’, e.g. ‘a plum bed’: meaning a soft, downy bed. Ibid., If the cake rises well in the oven, it is commonly said that it is ‘nice and plum’. 1893‘Q.’ (Quiller Couch) Delectable Duchy 207 The cushions felt extraordinary plum.
3. dial. Of a rock: Soft, easily worked.
1855J. R. Leifchild Cornwall Mines 96 As regards granite, the miner commonly prefers the somewhat decomposed kinds, in a state to which he applies the term plumb—a term much in use in Cornwall to express softness combined with a fair amount of resistance. Ibid. 97 A plumb granite or elvan is more particularly esteemed for tin, though the cases are not rare in which large bunches of copper and tin ores are found in hard granite.
For other dial. senses see Eng. Dial. Dict.
4. Comb.
1598Florio, Puttotta, a good handsome, plum-cheekt wench or lasse. 1603― Montaigne i. xxiv. 63 Insteade of plum-feeding the same [mind], hee hath onely spunged it vp with vanitie. Ibid. i. xxxviii. 121 More plumb-cheekt, in better health and liking then I am.
▪ III. plum, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 5 plumb-y, plum-, 6 plom, 9 plum, plumb.
[This and the related adj. plummy are known from c 1400; the vb. appears to contain a root found also in plim v., and perh. in plump.]
1. intr. To swell up; to become light or spongy, as dough when ‘rising’.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. ii. (Bodl. MS.), Þer is clene and pure aier and moche swete humoure and þat for plumynge and holes þat drawiþ and fongeth swete humoure. Ibid. xix. iv, Moiste mater ipressed and ifonge [ed. 1495 take] is araied & made to plumby & to sprede [humidum compressum paratur ad sparsionem et partium separationem]. 1853N. & Q. 1st Ser. VIII. 65/2 There is also a verb to plum... Dough, when rising under the influence of heat and fermentation, is said to be plumming well. 1875M. G. Pearse Dan. Quorm 32 Why there was the pan of bread set down before the fire to ‘plumb’.
2. a. trans. To make plump; to render soft and springy: = plump v.2 1.
1594Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 27 How to plom vp a horse, and to make him fatte and lustie. 1903Eng. Dial. Dict. (Cornwall), To ‘plum up’ the bed or pillow, i.e. to render them soft.
b. To fill or stuff up (a person) with false information.
1921Chambers's Jrnl. May 323/1 He ain't to know no different but what Jack's got prairie fever. Mind you plum him up stiff. 1927Observer 20 Nov. 26/5 He has recently returned from Upper Silesia..and promptly puts into writing all that his clever German friends have been ‘plumming’ him up with.
▪ IV. plum
variant of plumb n., a., and v. |