vegetablen.
/ˈvɛdʒ(ᵻ)təbl/, U.S. /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/, /ˈvɛdʒədəbəl/ 1. † b. The earth or an inorganic substance regarded as capable of life or growth. Obsolete. rare.
a. Any living organism that is not an animal; (in later use) spec. one belonging to the plant kingdom; = plant n.1 2a.In early use perhaps also: a living organism with the faculty of growth and reproduction but lacking in the powers of sensation, movement, or reason (cf. vegetable adj. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > [noun]
thingc1300
vegetablec1484
plantisouna1500
plantouna1500
vegetabilitya1500
vegetativea1500
plant1551
fellow creature1572
vegetal1591
morea1599
vegetive1602
vegetant1605
vegetationa1641
c1484 (a1475) J. de Caritate tr. Secreta Secret. (Takamiya) (1977) 176 (MED) Euiry thyng wantyng lyght of þe nombyr of vegetabyllis is attribute to Saturne..And qwat þing of vegetablys is floryschyng and luminus is youyn to Saturne.
a1500 (a1450) tr. Secreta Secret. (Ashm. 396) (1977) 67 (MED) Some vegetables ben by bowes, some by seedes, and some ben with-out seedes or plantacion.
1582 J. Hester tr. L. Fioravanti Compend. Rationall Secretes (title page) The Hidden Vertues of sondrie Vegitables, Animalles, and Mineralls.
1598 R. Haydocke tr. G. P. Lomazzo Tracte Artes Paintinge ii. 125 Some of them are taken from minerals.., some from the vegetables, and some from the animals.
1647 J. Howell New Vol. of Lett. 87 I have alwayes been naturally affected to woods & groves and those kind of vegetables.
1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 269 June, July, and August..exhibit a still different Shew of Vegetables, and Face of Things.
1736 T. Gray Let. in Corr. (1971) I. 47 Both vale & hill is cover'd over with most venerable beeches, & other very reverend vegetables.
1780 A. Young Tour Ireland (Dublin ed.) I. 18 Their only way is to let it cover itself with such vegetables as may come.
1782 V. Knox Ess. (1819) III. clii. 169 They [sc. speeches] are like vegetables of a night, or insects of a day.
1821 W. Scott Pirate II. xii. 285 Scrubby and stunted heath, intermixed with the long bent, or coarse grass..were the only vegetables that could be seen.
1858 O. W. Holmes Autocrat of Breakfast-table x. 275 Both [trees] are pleasing vegetables.
1884 de Candolle's Origin Cultivated Plants 4 The Tetragonia, an insignificant green vegetable.
1902 Pop. Sci. News Dec. 276/1 Let us imagine an island that is uninhabited by animals or vegetables.
1978 G. Murchie Seven Myst. of Life iii. 98 Desperate warfare is being fought perpetually between armies of animals and vegetables inside almost every flower pot.
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the world > the earth > [noun] > as capable of growth
vegetablea1676
the world > the earth > minerals > [noun] > a mineral > as capable of growth
vegetablea1676
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) i. iii. 96 Though the Earth be not animated with a Sensible Soul, yet it is possible that it may be a great Immortal Vegetable.
1715 G. Cheyne Philos. Princ. Relig. (ed. 2) i. v. 278 A Hill, is nothing but the Nest of some Mettle or Mineral, either of Stone, Iron, Tin, Copper, or such like lower Vegetables.
2. figurative. A person likened to a plant, spec. (a) one who leads an uneventful or monotonous life, without intellectual or social activity; (b) (in later use) one who is incapable of normal mental or physical activity, esp. as a result of brain damage. Cf. vegetable adj. 5.
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the world > action or operation > inaction > disinclination to act or listlessness > [noun] > as a way of life > one who leads such a life
vegetable1641
the world > health and disease > ill health > sick person > [noun] > physically or mentally disabled
defectivea1591
slimslack1600
unfit1912
vegetable1953
1641 Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia sig. D4v He was a meere vegetable of the Court that sprung up at night and sunke againe at his noone.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 86. ⁋3 I met him with all the respect due to so reverend a vegetable; for you are to know, that is my sense of a person who remains idle in the same place for half a century.
1754 O. Goldsmith Let. 6 May (1928) 22 This well cloathd vegetable is now fit to see company or make love.
1836 A. Combe Let. 29 Aug. in G. Combe Life & Corr. A. Combe (1850) xvi. 268 I resolved..to avoid business of every kind, and live as a mere vegetable, in the open air and sunshine.
1898 B. M. Croker Peggy of Bartons i. vi. 56 I only hope she will not become a mere vegetable, like the other girls, whose ideas are bounded by the Bartons.
1921 G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah i. 26 What use is this thousand years of life to you, you old vegetable?
1953 Chicago Daily Sun-Times 29 Dec. 40/5 It should not be inferred that Rocky is a vegetable, incapable of thinking for himself.
1980 B. Castle Castle Diaries 242 I hope and pray she will die with dignity and not be reduced by a stroke into a vegetable.
2005 A. Gibbons Blood Pressure 22 I may be ill but I'm not a vegetable. You won't see me glued to daytime TV like some dole-ite.
3. A plant or fungus cultivated for food; esp. an edible part of a herbaceous plant (as a leaf, stem, or root) which typically forms (part of) the savoury course of a meal, served either in a cooked or raw state; such a plant or plant part prepared for eating. Frequently in plural.Now the main literal sense.Earliest in kitchen vegetable.
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the world > plants > wild and cultivated plants > food plant or vegetable > [noun]
victualc1374
fruita1400
vegetive1678
legume1687
vegetable1727
veg1844
veggie1907
weggebobble1922
the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > vegetables > [noun]
garden stuff1599
legume1653
kitchen-tillage1669
vegetive1678
olitory1696
vegetable food1700
kitchen stuffc1710
vegetable1727
veg1844
veggie1907
weggebobble1922
1727 S. Switzer Pract. Kitchen Gardiner iii. xxx. 156 Artichokes, as most other kitchen vegetables do, affect a fresh hearty deep soil.
1740 T. Lediard German Spy (ed. 2) xxviii. 258 A large Piece of smoaked or salted Beef..is served up the whole Week, with Vegetables or a Dish of Fish.
1796 E. Inchbald Nature & Art ii. xlvi. 191 At a stinted repast of milk and vegetables.
1830 Gardener's Mag. Apr. 142 To supply the cottager's family, including pigs and poultry, with vegetables, potatoes, and faggots for his fire.
1846 A. Soyer Gastron. Regenerator 450 Where a dish of vegetables are required for second course.
1859 Ulster Jrnl. Archæol. 7 278 In former times, when cabbages were not generally cultivated in Ireland, the wild kail (called in Irish Praiseach), was often made use of as a kitchen vegetable.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 243 Cabbages or any other vegetables which are fit for boiling.
1917 Los Angeles Times 22 Apr. iii. 22 Potatoes, of course, are ‘spuds’ or ‘murphies’. All other vegetables are ‘greens’.
1955 F. G. Ashbrook Butchering, Processing & Preserv. Meat i. 3 The Indian squaw raised a few vegetables.
1981 Times 3 Jan. 11/3 Fried cuttlefish with vegetables was tender and moist.
2009 K. Liebrich et al. Family Kitchen Garden 117/1 The days when growing vegetables meant an ugly plot at the bottom of the garden are long since past.
Compounds
C1.
a.
(a) General attributive (in sense 3), as vegetable farm, vegetable knife, vegetable shop, vegetable tray, etc.Cf. also vegetable adj. 4a.
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1809 Morning Post 17 May Vegetable trays, forks, skewers, snuffers, spoons, &c.
1815 J. Scott Visit to Paris xi. 223 Two men, whom I observed playing at piquet in an open vegetable shop.
1847 London Jrnl. 30 406 There may be danger that the contents of the vegetable compartment might freeze.
1904 J. London Sea-wolf ix. 91 A dirk as lean and cruel-looking as Thomas Mugridge's vegetable knife.
1943 Life 13 Dec. 58/2 One politician who..denounced the OPA for..not raising livestock prices, vegetable prices and fish prices.
1969 R. R. Fagen Transformation Polit. Culture in Cuba 170 An area that before the revolution had contained a number of large vegetable farms.
1982 F. L. Carsten War against War iv. 76 Food shops and vegetable barrows were plundered and shop windows smashed.
2011 R. Stokes Good Man's Daughter xxvii. 181 A pig grunted as it nosed through some discarded vegetable peelings.
(b)
vegetable basin n.
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1873 Boston Daily Globe 1 Oct. 3/1 We'll add to the vegetable basin a leek, half a head of celery, and what is known..as the bouquet garni.
1999 J. M. Nfah-Abbenyi Your Madness, not mine iii. 25 I peeped through the kitchen window and saw my sister's vegetable basin sitting on her veranda.
vegetable drawer n.
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1891 Garden 3 Jan. 4/3 A dearth of other winter vegetables may induce them to take a little more trouble with the queer little twisted tubers, instead of allowing them to shrivel up..in the vegetable drawers.
1937 Amer. Home Apr. 65/2 (advt.) Among the other convenience features are easy-out ice-cube trays,..deep-dish vegetable drawer, matched food containers.
2008 S. K. Law Paper Marriage xi. 111 She slid open the vegetable drawers, which were as clean as an operating room.
vegetable garden n.
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the world > food and drink > farming > gardening > garden > [noun] > kitchen- or herb-garden
wortyardOE
kitchen garden1376
calgarth14..
pot garden1511
herbary1625
potagera1684
plantiequoy1686
potagerie1693
olitory1706
yard1718
kailyard1725
vegetable garden1756
plantiecrue1806
cabbage patch1810
cole-garth1865
victory garden1942
1756 Reasons Building Barracks 40 A vegetable garden would contribute essentially to the health and welfare of the soldiers.
1887 Outing 10 12/1 Back of its hacienda is a fine orchard and vegetable garden.
2004 L. Desoto Blade of Grass iii. 21 Behind the kraal is the small area of vegetable gardens for the workers—spinach, tomatoes, carrots.
vegetable market n.
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1789 R. Townley Jrnl. kept in Isle of Man 14 Feb. (1792) II. 92 The vegetable market made a very wretched appearance. Nothing hardly green in it.
1853 W. J. Hickie tr. Aristophanes Comedies II. 416 In the pottery-market, and in the vegetable-market alike.
1995 R. Gray & R. Rogers River Cafe Cook Bk. 9 In the vegetable markets we found tiny fennel bulbs.
vegetable patch n.
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1835 J. P. Kennedy Horse-shoe Robinson II. xv. 125 The forest had been cleared for the space of a few acres and these were occupied by a small garden or vegetable patch.
1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 20 Mar. 17/1 The born gardener is still looking ahead in the Fall when other people store their tools and never do a hand's turn in the vegetable patch until the Spring urge comes upon them again.
2005 Grow your Own Dec. 85/2 A few birds can cause havoc in the vegetable patch by uprooting transplants.
vegetable rack n.
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1885 Iowa at Industr. & Cotton Expos. 156 One vegetable rack and decoration.
1997 D. Hansen Sole Survivor x. 115 In the cool and dark of his shed, potatoes, onions, apples and kumara—sweet potatoes—were piled high on vegetable racks.
vegetable wagon n.
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1836 Gardener's Mag. Nov. 593 Dung being cheap..it is the practice of the London commercial gardeners to load their vegetable waggons with it.
1997 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 6 Apr. b1 Lapointe..was pelted with cabbages when, at a vegetable wagon, he mistook a lady of the day for a lady of the night.
b. Objective (in sense 3).
vegetable chopper n.
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1840 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 16 310 Cambray, of Paris, for a chaff cutter or corn mill and vegetable chopper, in one apparatus.
1939 Pop. Sci. Monthly Aug. 120 The vegetable chopper at the right has a spring-operated third blade, that holds food for chopping.
2006 P. T. Nguyen in S. Williams Ethnomusicologists' Cookbk. 110 Slice 3 stalks of lemongrass and grind with 3 garlic cloves in vegetable chopper.
vegetable cutter n.
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1805 Courier (London) 21 May 1/1 Vegetable cutters of the greatest variety.
1908 Gardeners' Chron. 25 Apr. 261/3 Cut the roots into slices or shred them with a vegetable cutter.
2004 J. Barnes Sleep when I'm Dead i. 4 A steak knife, a bread knife, a big, heavy vegetable cutter and a meat cleaver lay..on the coffee table.
vegetable eater n.
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the world > animals > by eating habits > [noun] > herbivore
vegetable feeder1740
vegetable eater1787
herbivore1854
phytophagan1883
1787 A. Young Jrnl. July in Trav. France (1792) i. 28 There are both sorts [of bears], carnivorous and vegetable-eaters.
1898 M. O. Wright Four-footed Americans xvii. 257 The Pronghorn is a cud-chewer, therefore a vegetable eater and no cannibal.
2009 Herald Sun (Melbourne) (Nexis) 6 July 34 Eddie, 4, was the worst vegetable eater, but..after a lot of encouragement..he is finally eating vegetables and fruit.
vegetable-eating n. and adj.
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the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eating specific substances or food > [adjective] > eating vegetables
herbivorous1661
vegetable-eating1703
vegetable-feeding1803
vegetivorous1822
vegetarian1850
plantivorous1890
1703 Coll. Improvem. Husbandry & Trade 13 Aug. The Estrich..is a Phitivorous (or Vegetable eating) Bird.
1838 W. A. Alcott Veg. Diet viii. 230 The best solids and fluids are produced by vegetable eating.
1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl Shooting xxv. 262 They are exceedingly expert divers, and can swim under water to much longer distances than any others of the vegetable-eating ducks.
1922 H. T. Finck Gardening with Brains iii. 28 Vegetable eating, in our own country, is still in its infancy.
2010 Times Picayune (New Orleans) (Nexis) 19 Sept. b12 Zoo officials have embarked on a new project to cart dung from..vegetable-eating animals to a corner of the zoo's service yard.
vegetable feeder n.
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the world > animals > by eating habits > [noun] > herbivore
vegetable feeder1740
vegetable eater1787
herbivore1854
phytophagan1883
1740 G. Cheyne Ess. Regimen 117 The two proper Antidotes..seem to be Mercury, some how prepared, and Water,..the one for animal, and the other for vegetable Feeders.
1875 C. C. Blake Zoology 54 The cheiroptera are, however, vegetable-feeders.
1992 L. L. Somani Dict. Ecol. & Environment VI. 1272 Medium sized carp fish;..predominantly vegetable feeder.
vegetable-feeding n. and adj.
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the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eating specific substances or food > [adjective] > eating vegetables
herbivorous1661
vegetable-eating1703
vegetable-feeding1803
vegetivorous1822
vegetarian1850
plantivorous1890
1803 J. Walker in Prize Ess. & Trans. Highland Soc. Scotl. 2 80 Dung, and all animal and vegetable feeding manures, are less requisite than the above fossile manures.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. III. 966 These stony masses are found in the intestines of many vegetable-feeding animals.
1922 J. H. Hess Princ. & Pract. Infant feeding (ed. 3) ix. 422 The instituting of vegetable soups and vegetable feeding as early as the sixth or seventh month..is to be recommended.
1992 Daily Mail (Nexis) 27 May 13 Vegetable-feeding insects are a lot cleaner and nutritious than some of the foods we eat.
vegetable grater n.
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1846 Farmer's Mag. 14 249/2 A patent turnip and vegetable grater and divider.
1935 Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 118/2 Take a sugar beet..and pass it through a vegetable grater.
2005 J. W. Theriot Cajun Low-Carb 251 Trim the big stems from the broccoli heads and grate them with a vegetable grater.
vegetable seller n.
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1820 T. Lyman Polit. State Italy iv. 40 A vegetable seller, past sixty years, was killed in the street.
1994 J. Updike Brazil v. 42 They had kindly, wrinkled, non-involved faces, like those of vegetable sellers in the market.
vegetable slicer n.
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1838 Farmer's Mag. 8 217/2 Winnowing machines. Vegetable slicers. Hay cutters.
1999 Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 16 June d13 They tout such things as vegetable slicers, non-stick cookware, pasta makers..and..car mats.
C2.
vegetable-based adj. having plant matter, esp. vegetables or vegetable products, as a chief constituent or base.
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1930 Painters Mag. June 23/2 For coloring matter, any of the mineral or metallic based colors can be used. Vegetable based or chemical colors should be avoided.
1977 Changing Times Nov. 31/1 Those who believe that vegetable-based farming is a wiser use of exhaustible land and resources than raising animals for meat.
1999 J. Tanner in C. Lentz Changing Food Habits ix. 237 The transition to a vegetable-based diet, which was at the heart of the Swiss dietary plan, was seen as..a public health programme.
2006 M. Goodman et al. Food to live By viii. 313 (caption) We use biodiesel (a vegetable-based fuel) in our Carmel Valley tractors instead of fossil fuels.
vegetable box n. (a) a box in which vegetables are stored or delivered; (b) spec. (originally and chiefly British) a box of (typically organically grown) vegetables provided regularly by a local farm or other business; frequently attributive in vegetable box scheme.
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1846 Illustr. London News 18 July 46/2 The ice-drawers and dresser; the vegetable boxes; the suspended frame for meat, game, &c.
1993 Independent 23 Oct. 35/6 One such scheme is a home-delivery ‘box’ scheme run by Jan Deane with the produce from her 31-acre organic Northwood Farm... Northwood Vegetable Boxes.
1995 P. Collins Eden's Apple 70 Max went down to the corner market and got five sturdy cardboard vegetable boxes.
2006 W. E. Cook Biodynamic Food & Cookbk. i. ii. 30 We can join vegetable box schemes and encourage all local institutions such as councils, schools and large firms to source all their supplies as locally as possible.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
vegetableadj.
/ˈvɛdʒ(ᵻ)təbl/, U.S. /ˈvɛdʒtəb(ə)l/, /ˈvɛdʒədəb(ə)l/ 1. Having the most basic attributes of life; spec. endowed with the power or faculty of growth, as opposed to the powers of sensation, movement or rational thought. Frequently in vegetable soul (cf. vegetative adj. 1a). Now chiefly historical.
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the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > living and growing
vegetablec1425
vegetal1490
sustenablea1500
vegetative1567
vegetated1697
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) iii. l. 5686 Comparysownyd, as it were semblable, To a sowle þat were vegetable, Þe whiche, with-oute sensibilite, Mynystreth lyf in herbe, flour, and tre.
?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Cci In the whiche [body] our lorde hath planted the soule vegetable by the whiche it groweth.
1591 J. Hester tr. J. Du Chesne Breefe Aunswere Expos. I. Aubertus f. 9v There is comparison of the vegetable soule to the sensible.
1610 J. Healey tr. St. Augustine Citie of God xxii. iv. 878 Yet is the earth full of vegetable soules, strangely combined with earthly bodies.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) iii. iv. 206 Things vegetable, that have simply Life, with those operations incident to Life.
1683 J. Pettus Ess. Metallick Words at Regulus, in Fleta Minor ii Though Metals, (by some) are put among inanimates; yet others believe that they have a vegetable Soul.
1725 J. Sharp Compl. Midwife's Compan. (ed. 4) i. xvii. 48 The natural and vegetable Soul is virtually in the Seed.
1770 tr. C. von Wolff Logic 57 The vegetable Soul..whereby Plants are enabled to vegetate or grow.
1847 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Pract. Med. 50 303 The vegetable soul [in Galen's physiology] presides over the generative, augmentative, and nutritive faculties.
1878 Catholic Progress June 169/1 Experience is helpless to stride over the gap between vegetable and sentient organisms.
1893 M. B. Peeke Zenia, the Vestal xii. 215 Every spherule of organized universal respires into the planet to its universal Soul; every vegetable to its vegetable soul; every animal to its animal soul.
1921 O. A. Hill Psychol. & Nat. Theol. v. 65 His [sc. man's] life partakes of all three kingdoms..; and its principle is therefore at one and the same time a vegetable soul, an animal soul, and a rational soul.
1957 D. P. Costello tr. S. Hedayat Blind Owl iv. 105 The opium had breathed its vegetable soul, its sluggish vegetable soul, into my frame.
2009 B. R. Smith Key of Green ii. 66 The ‘vegetable soul’ that mankind was imagined to share with both plants and animals includes reproduction.
2. † a. That is a plant; living and growing as a plant. Also figurative. Cf. vegetative adj. 1b. Obsolete.In some instances it is difficult to distinguish between this sense and sense 2c.
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the world > plants > by growth or development > [adjective]
quickOE
vegetablec1425
adolent?1440
vegetative1509
vegetate1574
vegetarya1595
vegetating1605
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. l. 674 (MED) Zephirus, þat is so comfortable For to norysche þinges vegetable.
c1450 Contin. Lydgate's Secrees (Sloane 2464) l. 2313 (MED) Knowe..That in beeste nor thyng vegitable No thyng may be vnyuersally But yif it be founde naturally In mannys nature.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 73 Hit may be concludede Paradise not to be there, sythe noo thynge vegetable [L. nihil vegetabile] may haue lyfe þer.
c1484 (a1475) J. de Caritate tr. Secreta Secret. (Takamiya) (1977) 161 (MED) Watrys be profytabyl to euiry lyuyng thyng, noȝt only to bestys but also to alle vegetabyl thynge.
a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 90 What þinge vegetable þat..makys fruyt, to þe sonne ys apropird.
1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. Vegetable, springing, or growing, as herbes.
1629 H. Burton Truth's Triumph 197 How far themselues differ from senslesse stockes, or come short of the vegetable trees.
a1678 A. Marvell To Coy Mistress in Misc. Poems (1681) 19 My vegetable love should grow Vaster than Empires, and more slow.
1839 E. A. Poe Fall House of Usher in Tales (1845) 74 This opinion [of Usher's], in its general form, was that of the sentience of all vegetable things.
b. Of conditions, actions, qualities, etc.: of, relating to, or characteristic of plants. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > [adjective]
vegetablea1500
vegetive1526
vegetant?1553
plantlike1567
vegetable1582
vegetal1596
plantal1642
vegetative1662
veg1765
vegetably1834
phytoid1853
phytiform1890
a1500 (a1450) tr. Secreta Secret. (Ashm. 396) (1977) 72 Vegetabill composicion is nobler than originall, animal more nobler than vegetable.
a1643 W. Cartwright Lady-errant i. ii, in Comedies (1651) sig. a4v The other counts her Apricots,..lays 'em naked And open to the Sun, that it may freely Smile on her vegetable Embraces.
1694 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding (new ed.) ii. xxvii. 179 The Wood, Bark, and Leaves, &c. of an Oak, in which consists the vegetable Life.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 127 My Song to Flow'ry Gardens might extend. To teach the vegetable Arts. View more context for this quotation
1712 A. Pope tr. Ovid Fable Vertumnus & Pomona in Misc. Poems 129 None taught the Trees a nobler Race to bear, Or more improv'd the Vegetable Care.
1733 J. Arbuthnot Ess. Effects Air Human Bodies i. 9 The Heat arising from vegetable Perspiration is very sensible in a hot Day near a Field of Corn.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. l. 172 The lonesome traveller derives a sort of comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life.
1806 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 15 571 The learned President begins this paper by a theory of animal and vegetable processes, deriving them..from fermentation.
1842 J. C. Loudon Suburban Horticulturist 25 This short passage comprehends the essence of all that can be said on the subject of vegetable development.
1874 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David IV. Ps. xcii. 10 The brutish men grow with a sort of vegetable vigour of their own.
1935 F. Birtles Battle Fronts Outback 50 I pursued my way over miles of scalded plain—called scalded because the hot sun scalds up all sign of vegetable life.
1992 H. Mitchell One Man's Garden viii. 161 It's a fact of vegetable life that sometimes when two fully distinct varieties are crossed..you will get seed that produces a plant of uncommon vigor.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures I. 323/1 Green vegetable growth was visible on its back as it came out of the water.
c. Of material substances: made or derived from plants. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > [adjective]
vegetablea1500
vegetive1526
vegetant?1553
plantlike1567
vegetable1582
vegetal1596
plantal1642
vegetative1662
veg1765
vegetably1834
phytoid1853
phytiform1890
1582 J. Hester tr. L. Fioravanti Compend. Rationall Secretes i. xxxiii. 39 You shall giue them ℥.j. of our Vegitabile Sirrup.
1594 H. Plat Diuerse Sorts of Soyle 3 in Jewell House All sorts..of soyle..do draw their generatiue and fructifying vertue from that vegetable salt.
1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 89 By retrenching a considerable quantity of the vegetable Matter.
1721 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husb. II. 207 Statues are a lasting Ornament when vegetable Ornaments are out of Season.
1790 Edinb. Mag. Mar. 211/2 The..little box contained a vegetable poison, collected, with extremest hazard of life, from the celebrated Upas tree.
1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound iii. iv. 116 My coursers sought their birth-place in the sun,..Pasturing flowers of vegetable fire.
1875 F. H. A. Scrivener 6 Lect. Text New Test. 18 The ancient ink was purely vegetable, without any metallic base.
1902 G. S. Whitmore Last Maori War viii. 131 They were reduced to great straits, living on the maggots of the matai trees and such vegetable products of the forest as are scarcely edible.
1939 Cue 29 July 39/3 Her Jade Cocktail..is made of 4 cups of grapefruit juice, 1 cup of spinach juice, ¼ cup of watercress juice, and a pinch of vegetable salt.
1985 P. Abrahams View from Coyaba iii. ii. 169 Jacob recognized the familiar farming community smells of animal dung, vegetable matter.
2004 K. N. Sanecki Discovering Herbs (ed. 7) 7 Compost is derived from vegetable waste, both kitchen scraps and garden material.
d. Of soil, compost, etc.: containing or consisting of decomposed plant material; organic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > kind of earth or soil > [adjective] > organic
vegetable1705
mucky1840
sapric1965
1705 Miscellanea Curiosa (Royal Soc.) I. 226 It does not contain any thing in it self that is of the same nature with the vegetable mould.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth I. 55 In regions which are uninhabited,..where the forests are not cut down,..the bed of vegetable earth is constantly encreasing.
1812 S. Edwards New Bot. Garden I. 53 Good light vegetable mould.
1830 M. Donovan Domest. Econ. I. v. 137 What remains, when the decomposition has totally broken down the structure of the vegetable, is a black pulverulent substance... This..is..the chief ingredient in vegetable manure.
1855 D. T. Ansted in Orr's Circle Sci.: Inorg. Nature 185 Whatever rocks may be composed of, they are sure to be covered, after a time, with debris,..until at last there is a covering of vegetable soil.
1916 Monthly Bull. (Calif. State Comm. Hort.) Sept. 335 The improvement in this orchard was in definite proportion to the length of time the soil has been covered with vegetable mulch.
1929 H. A. A. Nicholls & J. H. Holland Text-bk. Trop. Agric. (ed. 2) i. ii. 8 The formation of soil by the combined action of the atmosphere and vegetation is a very important factor in the production of what is known as vegetable mould.
2006 D. White Vegan Rustic Cooking p. viii Fertility is maintained by vegetable compost, green manures, crop rotation, mulches..and any other method that is sustainable.
3. Designating the division of the natural world to which plants (and in early use all living organisms other than animals) belong, as vegetable creation, vegetable world, etc.Recorded earliest, and chiefly, in vegetable kingdom n. at Compounds 2.
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the world > plants > [noun] > vegetable kingdom
vegetable kingdom1650
vegetal1658
vegetable creation1823
plant life1855
1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces iv. 249 As in the vegetable kingdom water cleanseth water.
1667 A. Cowley Garden in J. Wells Poems Divers Occasions sig. ¶ 7v Who would not joy to see his conqu'ring hand O're all the Vegetable world command?
1718 M. Prior Solomon on Vanity i, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 399 The Vegetable World, each Plant, and Tree,..I am allow'd, as Fame reports, to know.
1823 J. Badcock Domest. Amusem. 206 This extends in more or less degree to every part of vegetable creation.
1837 Farmers’ Reg. 1 Nov. 414/2 If the whole class of animals were extinguished, the use of the atmosphere by the vegetable class alone, would exhaust it of its life-supporting power.
1889 S. F. Baird Sea Fisheries East. N. Amer. 72 The most important element of the vegetable division is in the extremely minute and more or less microscopic form of diatoms.
1922 J. J. Sudborough Bernthsen's Text-bk. Org. Chem. (new ed.) Introd. 1 Formerly those compounds which occur in the animal and vegetable worlds were classed under organic, and those which occur in the mineral world were under inorganic chemistry.
1999 Guardian 22 Apr. i. 12/5 French scientists have found the vegetable world's missing link.
4. † b. Living on vegetables; vegetarian. Obsolete. rare.
a. Of, consisting of, or made from vegetables (vegetable n. 3).Recorded earliest in vegetable food n.1Now hardly distinguishable from the attributive use of the noun: see vegetable n. Compounds 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > wild and cultivated plants > food plant or vegetable > [adjective] > consisting of vegetables
vegetable1700
vegetarian1843
the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > vegetables > [adjective]
vegetable1700
vegetarian1843
1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Of Pythagorean Philos. in Fables 529 Nourish Life with vegetable Food, And shun the sacrilegious tast of Blood.
1746 P. Francis & W. Dunkin tr. Horace Satires ii. v. 22 What your Garden yields,..To him be sacrific'd, and let him taste, Before your Gods, the vegetable Feast.
1774 W. Buchan Domest. Med. (ed. 3) xliii. 488 A milk and vegetable diet..will often perform a cure.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Vegetable-soups, soups made with green pease, turnips, and carrots cut small, cabbages, &c.
1892 Mrs. H. Ward David Grieve II. v. 174 Here was a table covered with stewed fruits; there another laden with round vegetable pies.
1922 A. Jekyll Kitchen Ess. 194 If that insidious enemy, soup, be held indispensable at dinner, at least avoid the vegetable purées and bisques.
1978 N.Y. Mag. 30 July 73/2 The vegetable curry is a very good buy at $2.95.
2004 Time Out 25 Aug. 43/2 A grilled meat selection..was equally delicious, served with a light vegetable stew.
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the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > following specific diet > [adjective] > vegetarian or vegan
Pythagorical1570
Pythagorean1651
vegetable1812
vegetarian1847
vegetizing1857
vegetant1858
veg1884
lacto-ovo-vegetarian1940
veggie1942
vegan1944
1812 P. B. Shelley Let. 27 Dec. in T. J. Hogg Life Shelley (1858) II. 197 I continue vegetable; Harriet means to be slightly animal, until the arrival of spring.
5. Chiefly of a life or lifestyle: resembling that of a plant, esp. uneventful, featureless, passive, monotonous.
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the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > [adjective] > wearisome or tedious
dreicha1300
alangec1330
joylessa1400
tedious1412
wearifulc1454
weary1465
laboriousa1475
tiresome?a1513
irksome1513
wearisome1530
woodena1566
irkful1570
flat1573
leaden1593
barren1600
soaked1600
unlively1608
dulla1616
irking1629
drearisome1633
drear1645
plumbous1651
fatigable1656
dreary1667
uncurious1685
unenlivened1692
blank1726
disinteresting1737
stupid1748
stagnant1749
trist?1756
vegetable1757
borish1766
uninteresting1769
unenlivening1774
oorie1787
wearying1796
subjectless1803
yawny1805
wearing1811
stuffy1813
sloomy1820
tediousome1823
arid1827
lacklustrous1834
boring1839
featureless1839
slow1840
sodden1853
ennuying1858
dusty1860
cabbagy1861
old1864
mouldy1876
yawnful1878
drab1880
dehydrated1884
interestless1886
jay1889
boresome1895
stodgy1895
stuffy1895
yawnsome1900
sludgy1901
draggy1922
blah1937
nowhere1940
drack1945
stupefactive1970
schleppy1978
wack1986
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures David Ranger (ed. 2) II. 189 My life has ever since been..a kind of vegetable existence.
1770 P. Stockdale in tr. T. Tasso Amyntas i. i. 3 How long I've lived a vegetable life, How long I've wanted sentimental being! [No corresponding sentence in the Italian original.]
1855 J. S. C. Abbott Hist. Napoleon II. ii. 46 The pauper peasantry, weary of the monotony of a merely vegetable life, were glad of any pretext for excitement.
1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. vii. 298 They had no occasion to mark the lapse of time in their monotonous and vegetable existence.
1922 F. Grendon Love Chase iv. xxiii. 335 Then there are the vegetable people, the people who fold their hands and piously accept such crumbs of life as are showered upon them.
1993 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 28 Mar. 5 c It was a life unlived, a vegetable existence suckled on rubbish heaps and water lilies, fed on the brackish surface of a bog.
Compounds
Some of the formations listed here may alternatively be interpreted as attributive uses of vegetable n., esp. in later use. C1. In the names of pigments or colours derived from plants, as vegetable black, vegetable blue, etc.
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the world > matter > colour > colouring > colouring matter > [adjective] > types of pigment
vegetable1752
Day-Glo1951
1752 Olympiade 8 The curtains were a summer's hue, A kind of vegetable Blue.
1807 T. Thomson Syst. Chem. (ed. 3) II. 174 This acid reddens vegetable blues, and gradually destroys the greater number of them.
1818 Times 17 Sept. 3/2 An infusion of some of the vegetable yellows, as turmeric, fustic, French berries, or such other substance..might be employed.
1874 F. G. D. Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. x. 318 Vegetable Black.—This is the cheapest and best black for all ordinary work.
1906 E. Thurston Ethnographic Notes S. India 523 The beautiful vegetable reds of Madura and Conjeeveram are not what we should call a true red.
2002 Fine Woodworking Mar. 41/1 For this table I used..one heaped teaspoon of vegetable black dry pigment.
C2. † vegetable power n. Obsolete the capacity for growth, the absorption of nutrients, and reproduction; cf. sense 1.
vegetable acid n. Chemistry (now chiefly historical) an acid of plant origin.
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the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > acids obtained from plants or trees > [noun]
vegetable acid1698
rhein1827
igasuric acid1830
rheumin1832
rheic acid1838
strychnic acid1840
1698 J. Floyer Treat. Asthma 188 I think not fit to multiply any farther receipts from vegetable acids, but will pass to the acids of animals.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Alkaly Since Vegetable Acids are originally no other than Mineral ones.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 389 The acetous, and most other vegetable acids, have some action upon tin.
1929 H. A. A. Nicholls & J. H. Holland Text-bk. Trop. Agric. (ed. 2) ii. v. 194 A little unslaked lime is added so as to neutralise the vegetable acids.
2004 W. Bethard Lotions, Potions, & Deadly Elixirs i. 6 Vegetable acids were organically derived and used to treat everything from headaches to sprains and bruises.
vegetable alkali n. Chemistry (now historical) (a) an alkali of plant origin; spec. potash; cf. animal alkali n. at animal n. Compounds 2; (b) = vegetable alkaloid n.
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the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > organic bases > [noun] > obtained from plants
vegetable alkali1727
sinapine1838
verdate1843
sinamine1848
sinapoline1848
opianine1852
fumarin1864
guanidine1864
betaine1879
1727 P. Shaw & E. Chambers tr. H. Boerhaave New Method Chem. lxii. 176 To one part of good strong quick-lime, set in a glass vessel, add three parts of fix'd vegetable alkali.
1796 R. Kirwan Elements Mineral. (ed. 2) II. 5 Of the fixed [alkalis] there are two species, the one generally afforded by the incineration of inland vegetables, and thence called the Vegetable Alkali.
1828 J. Murray Syst. Materia Medica & Pharmacy (ed. 5) I. i. i. 71 The principal vegetable alkalis are, Morphine, Quinine, Cinchonine, Digitaline, Emetine, Strychnine, Brucine, Picrotoxine, Veratrine, and Atropine, &c.
1910 F. J. S. Gorgas Questions & Answers Curriculum Dental Student 242 Q. What is an Alkaloid? A. A vegetable alkali; the active principle of drugs.
1936 Isis 25 379 The genus comprises: vegetable alkali (species 1), or potash; fossil alkali (species 2), or soda; volatile alkali (species 3), or ammonium carbonate.
2007 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 96 67 Until the latter part of the eighteenth century, potash (potassium carbonate) or ‘vegetable alkali’, was much the more important of the two ‘natural’ fixed alkalis.
vegetable alkaloid n. Chemistry an alkaloid of plant origin.
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1824 Lancet 13 Nov. 212/4 (table) This [sc. strychnine] is the most active poison of all the vegetable alcaloids.
1888 A. Conan Doyle Study in Scarlet i. i. 6 Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes... I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry.
1925 L. E. H. Whitby Nurses' Handbk. Hygiene vi. 122 Ptomaines... Chemically they are allied to the vegetable alkaloids and are extremely toxic.
2004 K. D. Watson Poisoned Lives (2007) i. 25 With the exception of strychnine and morphine, the vegetable alkaloids did not account for a significant number of criminal poisonings.
vegetable brimstone n. now rare a finely-grained flammable powder consisting of the spores of a club moss (genus Lycopodium); = lycopodium n. 2.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > other vegetable materials > [noun] > lycopodium
witch meal1792
lycopodium1836
vegetable brimstone1838
lycopode1866
vegetable sulphur1887
1838 Ann. Nat. Hist. Aug. 428 This substance is largely collected, and applied to different purposes, being known by the vulgar name of vegetable brimstone or lycopode.
1846 J. Lindley Veg. Kingdom 70 The powder contained in the spore~cases of Lycopodium clavatum and Selago..is employed under the name of Lycopode, or vegetable brimstone,..in the manufacture of fireworks, and..to roll up pills.
1904 H. Eastman New Eng. Ferns 127 It [sc. lycopodium spores] is sometimes called vegetable brimstone, and is used in the manufacture of fireworks.
vegetable butter n. any of various fatty substances having a similar consistency to butter but obtained from plants or (more usually) their seeds; cf. butter n.1 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > fat or oil > [noun] > vegetable oil or margarine
palm oil1625
vegetable oil1651
butter of mace1694
Negro-oil1753
sunflower oil1768
Galam butter1782
vegetable butter1790
vegetable fat1797
winter oil1811
butter substitute1834
red palm oil1836
butter oil1844
shea butter1847
palm butter1848
vegetable lard1859
palm-kernel oil1863
butterine1866
margarine1873
oleomargarine1873
bosch1879
oleo1884
oleo oil1884
vegetable shortening1892
Nucoline1894
almond butter1895
nut butter1896
Nutter1906
marge1919
Maggie Ann1931
sun oil1937
vanaspati1949
maggie1971
canola oil1982
1790 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Elements Nat. Hist. & Chem. (new ed.) III. 27 Under the third genus, we comprehend concrete fixed oils, or vegetable butters.
1866 Dublin Univ. Mag. Aug. 226/2 They carry at their girdle, for toilet purposes, a pot of vegetable butter, with which they anoint themselves every evening.
1918 Times 23 Dec. 7/2 They propose to make soap, vegetable butter, and other oil seed products.
2010 W. Shurtleff Hist. Soybeans & Soyfoods Canada 151/1 Vegetable butter, biscuits, cocoa, milk chocolates and other confectionery..proved quite a success.
vegetable camel n. now rare any of various plants adapted to store water; (in early use) spec. a carrion flower (genus Stapelia).
ΚΠ
1798 Crit. Rev. 22 App. 524 In this rugged tract, Mr. Masson met with those beautiful stapeliæ, the vegetable camels of the desert.
1836 A. H. Lincoln Familiar Lect. Bot. (ed. 5) ii. vi. 40 Some plants..flourish in the most dry and sandy places, exposed to a burning sun; as the Stapelia, sometimes called the vegetable camel.
1878 Edinb. Med. Jrnl. (1879) 24 i. 573 It [sc. Eucalyptus oleosa] may be called a vegetable camel, its roots retaining so much water, that travellers through the wilderness rip them up for refreshment.
1967 Burlington (N. Carolina) Times-News 14 Dec. 5 c/3 Succulent plants..are actually vegetable camels, says the Society of American Florists, because of their astounding ability to assimilate, pipe, and store water.
vegetable casein n. Chemistry any of several plant proteins resembling casein, esp. legumin.
ΚΠ
1838 Penny Cycl. X. 343/2 Emulsin (vegetable albumen, vegetable casein, or amygdalin) occurs in most of the elaborated juices of plants.
1844 J. Liebig Familiar Lett. Chem. 2nd Ser. ix. 153 The vegetable caseine of almond-milk causes decompositions and transformations in a number of organic compounds, such, for instance, as salicine and amygdaline.
1921 Nature 22 Sept. 130/2 Vegetable casein has not so far proved as suitable as milk casein for the manufacture of casein-formaldehyde material.
2003 D. Beresford-Kroeger Arboretum Amer. 75/1 These seeds are an excellent source of vegetable protein called avenin or vegetable casein.
vegetable caterpillar n. any of several kinds of caterpillar (esp. those of the porina moth of New Zealand and moths of the Asian genus Thitarodes) when invaded and deformed by a fungus of the ascomycete genus Cordyceps while pupating underground; cf. vegetable fly n.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths > [noun] > miscellaneous types > miscellaneous types of caterpillar
vegetable caterpillar1842
1842 Sydney Morning Herald 20 Dec. 2/3 The vegetable caterpillar is in abundance.
1843 E. Dieffenbach Trav. N.Z. II. 363 Hotete—a caterpillar, the so-called vegetable caterpillar.
1905 E. L. M. White My N.Z. Garden 56 It is called the Vegetable Caterpillar. The specimens that I have seen were large, dead Caterpillars, with apparently the root of a shrub protruding from the region of the tail.
1984 A. K. Walker Miller’s Common Insects N.Z. 7 Porina caterpillars are also destroyed by diseases, the most notable of which are various species of Cordyceps fungus which convert their victims into the so-called ‘vegetable caterpillars’.
2010 Express & Echo (Exeter) (Nexis) 27 May 16 The 2003 outbreak of SARS in Asia saw an increase in demand for vegetable caterpillars for their medicinal value.
vegetable dye n. any of various dyes obtained or manufactured from plants.
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1709 J. Reynolds Death's Vision Notes 11 This Phænomenon of Linnen's more Easy quitting its Vegetable Dyes and Stains.
1838 Mechanic's Reg. 1 226/2 Vegetable dyes, perhaps, always require a mineral mordant, to strengthen and fix the color.
1920 E. Sykes & P. Sykes Through Deserts & Oases Central Asia iv. 82 The old Khotan carpets, their colours made from vegetable dyes, were attractive.
2010 Searcher Feb. 41/2 Woad is a vegetable dye used for colouring cloth and is quite unsuited as the basis for a cosmetic.
vegetable ethiops n. now historical and rare an impure charcoal made by calcining the seaweed bladderwrack ( Fucus vesiculosus), used medicinally in the treatment of various disorders including scrofula; cf. ethiops n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > fuel > charcoal > [noun]
coalOE
charcoalc1400
lind-coal14..
black coal1525
small coal1591
beech-coal1607
sallow charcoal1615
brier-coal1626
wood-coal1653
withy-cole1657
chark1708
vegetable ethiops1752
biochar1995
1752 tr. R. Russell Diss. Use Sea-Water 88 Precipitated Sulphur ten Grains, Vegetable Æthiops [L. æthiop. vegetabil.] half a Scruple..Make a Powder, to be taken Morning and Night.
1808 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 20 350 By calcining this plant [sc. Fucus vesiculosus] in the open air, the same author made from it a very black salt powder, which he called vegetable æthiops, a medicine much in use as a resolvent and deobstruent.
1910 A. C. Wootton Chron. Pharmacy I. xiii. 351 Vegetable ethiops was the ashes of fucus vesiculosus which were given in scrofulous complaints and in goitre before iodine was discovered.
vegetable fat n. (a variety of) fat obtained or manufactured from plants.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > fat or oil > [noun] > vegetable oil or margarine
palm oil1625
vegetable oil1651
butter of mace1694
Negro-oil1753
sunflower oil1768
Galam butter1782
vegetable butter1790
vegetable fat1797
winter oil1811
butter substitute1834
red palm oil1836
butter oil1844
shea butter1847
palm butter1848
vegetable lard1859
palm-kernel oil1863
butterine1866
margarine1873
oleomargarine1873
bosch1879
oleo1884
oleo oil1884
vegetable shortening1892
Nucoline1894
almond butter1895
nut butter1896
Nutter1906
marge1919
Maggie Ann1931
sun oil1937
vanaspati1949
maggie1971
canola oil1982
1797 G. Staunton Authentic Acct. Embassy to China III. 257 From the fruit of this last tree,..the Chinese obtain a kind of vegetable fat.
1881 J. A. Wanklyn & W. J. Cooper Bread-analysis vi. 63 Cocoa butter..is the natural vegetable fat existing in cocoa.
1967 Ann. Reg. 1966 166 The long-delayed common market regulations for sugar, vegetable fats and oils, and fruit and vegetables.
2000 Daily Tel. 16 Mar. 12/8 British companies can now sell products with up to five per cent vegetable fat as ‘family milk chocolate’.
vegetable firecracker n. now rare the firecracker flower, Dichelostemma ida-maia.
ΚΠ
1870 Living Way Mar. 88 The Vegetable Fire-crackers—so named from the resemblance a pendent cluster of these blossoms bears to a bunch of Chinese crackers—belongs to the Lily Family.
1889 Garden 8 June 524/2 Brodiæa coccinea..known under the name of Vegetable Fire Cracker of California or Crimson Satin flower is certainly one of the prettiest Californian bulbs.
1922 M. Hampden Bulb Gardening 208 Brody's Lily, the Brodiæa, is much better known, and has a number of popular names, such as Vegetable Fire-Cracker.
vegetable flannel n. now rare a fabric made from the leaves of the Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric made from specific material > made from other vegetable fibres > [noun] > other
bark-clothc1440
sedge-rug1592
grass cloth1638
medrinaque1704
Russia matting1773
gnatoo1817
tapa1823
vegetable flannel1840
rabanna1863
kapa1909
1840 Ann. Nat. Hist. 5 69 Mr. Lloyd exhibited a specimen of the Vegetable Flannel..brought by him from Berlin.
1912 F. M. Adams et al. Drygoodsman's Handy Dict. 65/1 Vasquine, a coarse, heavy cloth made of pine needle wool; also known as vegetable flannel.
vegetable fly n. now historical an insect invaded and deformed at the larval stage by a fungus of the ascomycete genus Cordyceps (formerly thought to be the insect itself producing a plant-like growth); cf. vegetable caterpillar n.
ΚΠ
1764 Philos. Trans. 1763 (Royal Soc.) 53 271 The vegetable fly is found in the island Dominica, and (excepting that it has no wings) resembles the drone both in size and colour more than any other English insect. In the month of May it buries itself in the earth, and begins to vegetate.
1842 Edinb. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 57 515 Notice is taken on the vegetable fly of Dominica, specimens of which sent to Dr Hill turned out to be a species of Clavaria..growing from the body of an insect.
1953 J. Ramsbottom Mushrooms & Toadstools xiii. 151 The vegetable fly reached Europe and became an article of commerce, everyone interested in natural history striving to obtain specimens for his cabinet.
2003 Cambr. Hist. Sci. IV. xvii. 409 Other much-discussed organisms were the ‘plant worm’ and the ‘vegetable fly’, both produced by fungi that attack dead caterpillars or insects.
vegetable gelatin n. any of several gelatinous substances obtained or manufactured from plants; spec. (a) one of the constituents of gluten (now rare); (b) any of several substances used in place of animal gelatin in cooking, esp. agar, chiefly obtained from seaweed; cf. vegetable jelly n.
ΚΠ
1803 W. B. Johnson Hist. Progr. & Present State Animal Chem. III. 202 Some account of the analogies that subsist between vegetable and animal matters, particularly between vegetable gelatin, and gluten, and animal gelatin, and fibrin.
1839 Mag. Domest. Econ. Oct. 99 By chemical treatment with nitric acid, it [sc. cartilage] may be converted into gelatin.., and almost identic with the vegetable gelatin, or jelly of plants and fruits.
1900 J. J. Black Forty Years Med. Profession xii. 455 There are four substances in it [sc. gluten],—vegetable albumin, vegetable casein, vegetable fibrin, and vegetable gelatin, the latter being considered an albumin-saving food.
1916 Creamery & Milk Plant Monthly Mar. 36 The vegetable gelatin is manufactured from an American seaweed and from Irish moss. Just how extensively it is used we are unable to state.
2004 Philadelphia Inquirer (Nexis) 1 July (Features Mag.) e1 The marshmallows are made with vegetable gelatin instead of the usual animal-based variety.
vegetable gold n. now rare (a) †saffron (obsolete); (also) the crocus that produces this, Crocus sativus; (b) a yellow acid derived from the roots of any of several similar composite plants found in Mexico.
ΚΠ
1853 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) 103/2 Aurum Vegetabile. Bot. Vegetable gold; an old name for saffron.
1863 Jrnl. Bot., Brit. & Foreign 1 352 Dr. Schultz-Bipontinus read an interesting paper on ‘Vegetable Gold’, an acid extracted from the root of Trixis Pipizahuac.
1900 A. B. Lyons Plant Names 281 From this and other species is obtained pipitzahoic acid, called vegetable gold, which has purgative properties.
1967 Sci. News 18 Mar. 252/2 Crocus sativus, an autumn-blooming flower..is also called ‘vegetable gold’ because its yellow stigma, which is part of the ovary, is the source of saffron in Asia Minor.
vegetable hair n. now chiefly historical any of several hairlike substances obtained from plants; spec. a dried preparation of the Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneiodes, formerly used for upholstery; cf. vegetable horsehair n.
ΚΠ
1844 W. Waterston Cycl. Commerce 217 Cotton-wool, or cotton.., a vegetable hair, or filamentous down, enveloping the seeds of different species of Gossypium.
1862 P. L. Simmonds Waste Products 46 In Trinidad, when steamed and dried, it [sc. T. usneoides] is used as a stuffing material, under the name of vegetable hair.
1937 Pop. Sci. Monthly June 33/1 Only recently, however, have scientific methods replaced the vegetable hair on the market.
1988 Florida Hist. Q. 66 267 Prepared moss was often referred to as ‘vegetable hair’ or ‘vegetable horse-hair’. Perhaps the use of this term helped sell the moss since it stressed the resemblance to a familiar product.
vegetable horsehair n. any of several hairlike substances obtained from plants; esp. the fibre of the leaves of the European palm Chamaerops humilis, and vegetable hair made from Spanish moss.
ΚΠ
1856 B. Seemann Pop. Hist. Palms 65 The coarser parts [of the fibre]..found with this ‘vegetable horsehair’, are used by all the tribes who write on paper as pens.
1886 J. Bonwick French Colonies 145 A dwarf palm gives the vegetable horse-hair from its leaves.
1922 Harper’s Mag. Apr. 649/1 Certain forms of a plant called Tillandsia, belonging to the pineapple order,..are popularly known as ‘vegetable horsehair’.
2005 M. Ellatifi in M. Merlo & L. Croitoru Valuing Mediterranean Forests 86/1 Vegetable horse-hair is a plant fibre which is extracted, in the present case, from the dwarf palm tree (Chamaerops humilis).
vegetable ivory n. the endosperm of the seed of any of several South American palms of the genus Phytelephas, which resembles ivory in hardness, colour, and texture, and is used for ornamental work, buttons, etc.; frequently attributive; cf. ivory n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > plants, nuts, seeds, or fruits used as beads or vessels > [noun] > vegetable ivory palm or seed
Negro's head1670
corozo1758
tagua1830
vegetable ivory1842
ivory palm1844
ivory-plant1866
1842 D. Cooper in Microsc. Jrnl. No. 16 (heading) On vegetable ivory.
1880 C. R. Markham Peruvian Bark 219 A hut was made among vegetable-ivory palms.
1885 A. Brassey In Trades 109 The vegetable-ivory plant (Phytelephas macrocarpa)..attracted a large share of attention.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. v. 106 There is a considerable parasitic industry concerned with faking precious coral... Many different substitutes are used, or have been used, such as ‘vegetable ivory’ and ‘ivory nut’, mixtures of rubber and gypsum, [etc.].
2007 Quilter's Newslet. Mag. May 88/3 Also known as vegetable ivory, the tagua nut is an eco-friendly, renewable resource from the Amazon jungle.
vegetable jelly n. now rare any of various gelatinous or gelling substances obtained or made from plants; esp. = pectin n.; cf. vegetable gelatin n.
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1772 C. White Treat. Managem. Pregnant & Lying-in Women vi. 118 The North American sago powder, dissolved in boiling water, forms a most agreeable, transparent, mucilaginous, vegetable jelly.
1808 W. Henry Epitome Chem. (Amer. ed. 2) i. xix. 262 Vegetable jelly, unless when tinged by the colour of the fruit, is nearly colourless; has a pleasant taste and a tremulous consistency.
1861 I. M. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 696 Vegetable jelly is a distinct principle, existing in fruits, which possesses the property of gelatinizing when boiled and cooled.
1903 E. Bartrum Bk. Pears & Plums 82 Plums are rich in ‘vegetable jelly’.
vegetable juice n. liquid obtained from plants; (esp. in later use) spec. juice derived from edible vegetables and used as a drink or in food preparation.
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1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces Annot. 344 So also is honey a certain sweet vegetable juice attracted by Bees out of the flowers of trees, and other vegetables growing in medows.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) The whole art of sugar-making, or the reducing vegetable juices to what we call sugar.
1848 A. Henfrey tr. M. J. Schleiden Plant 217 The wild Ass..knows how to guard against thirst..sucking the cooling vegetable juice.
1948 Billboard 15 May 103/2 Operators are offered a varied assortment of nationally-known fruit and vegetable juices in..six-ounce cans.
2000 Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 24 May b7 A glass of vegetable juice daily is better than no veggies at all.
vegetable kingdom n. (a) = plant kingdom n. at plant n.1 Compounds 5; (b) vegetables collectively (cf. vegetable n. 3).
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the world > plants > [noun] > vegetable kingdom
vegetable kingdom1650
vegetal1658
vegetable creation1823
plant life1855
1650 J. F. tr. M. Sedziwój New Light of Alchymie 114 By the due separation, and conjunction of these, Nature produceth..in the Vegetable Kingdome [L. in regno..vegetabili] Trees, Herbs, and all such things.
1784 tr. L. Spallanzani Diss. Nat. Hist. II. iii. v. 336 Can the whole vegetable kingdom be comprehended under one law?
1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 180/2 The distinction given between the animal and vegetable kingdoms is the possession of sensation by the former.
1915 Times 15 Dec. 13/5 In the ‘vegetable kingdom’ as elsewhere we have to face a very feminine future if our needs are to be met. I say ‘vegetable’ advisedly, for the flower garden is of no importance.
1952 J. A. Steers et al. Lake's Physical Geogr. (ed. 3) ii. v. 216 Diatoms belong to the vegetable kingdom and are in general of microscopic size.
2004 Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 24 Mar. c3/1 From a nutritional standpoint, lentils..have the highest protein content in all the vegetable kingdom after soybeans.
vegetable lamb n. now historical a plant believed to resemble a lamb, originally supposed to be part plant and part animal; esp. the tree fern Cibotium barometz, which has a woolly rhizome (= barometz n.).
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1650 T. Vaughan Anthroposophia Theomagica 40 This is more evident in the Plantanimals, as the Vegetable Lamb, the Arbor Casta, and severall others.
1765 J. Brown Christian Jrnl. 155 In Tartary's barren soil, grow the medicinal jingseng, and the vegetable lamb.
1852 Q. Rev. Jan. 47 A vegetable of some notoriety is the Cibotium Barometz, or Scythian lamb—the vegetable lamb of Tartary.
1927 H. B. Brown Cotton i. 3 Many strange and fabulous tales were told [about cotton], among which was the story of the Vegetable Lamb, or Zoöphyte, a being part animal and part plant.
1999 J. Bondesdon Feejee Mermaid 217 The vegetable lamb legend seems to have been taken over from a preexisting Chinese tradition that existed already in the fifth century, and probably even earlier.
vegetable lard n. a solid cooking fat obtained or manufactured from vegetable products.
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the world > food and drink > food > fat or oil > [noun] > vegetable oil or margarine
palm oil1625
vegetable oil1651
butter of mace1694
Negro-oil1753
sunflower oil1768
Galam butter1782
vegetable butter1790
vegetable fat1797
winter oil1811
butter substitute1834
red palm oil1836
butter oil1844
shea butter1847
palm butter1848
vegetable lard1859
palm-kernel oil1863
butterine1866
margarine1873
oleomargarine1873
bosch1879
oleo1884
oleo oil1884
vegetable shortening1892
Nucoline1894
almond butter1895
nut butter1896
Nutter1906
marge1919
Maggie Ann1931
sun oil1937
vanaspati1949
maggie1971
canola oil1982
1859 Daily Evening Bull. (San Francisco) 28 June 1/1 In the year 1875, when they [sc. olive trees] would be in mature bearing, we should economically and profitably supply our own vegetable lard.
1918 C. A. Mitchell Edible Oils & Fats iii. 33 Coconut oil is treated with alcohol and animal charcoal and the resulting product..is sold as ‘vegetable lard’.
2010 Sunday Times (Nexis) 18 Apr. (Ecosse section) 12 Malaysia has planted forests of palm oil, the vegetable lard that is the third devil ingredient after soya protein and corn syrup.
vegetable leather n. (a) a synthetic leather made from plants or using plant products; †(b) a tropical euphorbia, Euphorbia punicea, with red flowers and leathery leaves (obsolete rare).
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1849 H. Barnard Rep. & Docs. Public Schools Rhode Island 1848 377 We have seen beautiful specimens of maps printed on various specimens of a new fabric, recently invented, and called vegetable leather,..which will admit of the roughest use.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 1206/1 Vegetable Leather, Euphorbia punicea.
1925 Pop. Mech. June 961/1 A vegetable leather which is said to compare favourably with the animal product..is being produced from the ‘mitsumata’ plant.
2010 M. Pasternak Best of Friends xvi. 300 Made from socially and environmentally responsible rubberized canvas known as vegetable leather..the hard-to-find tote was modeled after a gardener's bag.
vegetable marrow n. see marrow n.1 5.
vegetable mercury n. †(a) Alchemy a form of mercury (mercury n. 8) (obsolete); (b) a medicinal preparation of plant origin used in place of mercury; any of the plants used in this way; esp. mudar, a plant of the genus Calotropis, and the manaca, Brunfelsia (formerly Franciscea) uniflora (now chiefly historical).
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1668 L. Coelson Philosophia Maturata 23 The Elixer is the same vegetable Mercury, which yet by reason of its fixation, is said not to be common, but consisting of many things.
1704 Philos. Epist. 12 By casting of a Mineral Sulphur into a Vegetable Mercury, by which they completely and perfectly purge each other.
1819 Medico-chirurgical Trans. 10 31 Mr. Playfair emphatically describes it as a ‘vegetable mercury’ specific in the cures of lues venerea, leprosy and cutaneous eruptions in general.
1884 Therapeutic Gaz. 15 Jan. 21/1 The name vegetable mercury is given to this plant [sc. manaca] by the inhabitants of Para, for the reason of its frequent use in..maladies where mercury is indicated.
1887 Standard 16 Sept. 5/2 The tree tomato..on the Spanish Mainland is known as..the ‘vegetable mercury’, from its supposed beneficial effect on the liver.
1903 Pharmaceut. Jrnl. 24 Jan. 92/1 It [sc. calotropis] has other properties, for which it is held in repute by the natives, notably its action in venereal diseases, which has gained it the name of ‘vegetable mercury’.
1995 D. B. Elliot Wild Roots 38/2 At one time, mercury compounds were used..in treating ailments of the liver and other organs. Thus May Apple root came to be called vegetable mercury.
vegetable mummy n. rare (now historical) = mummy n.1 3.
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1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature 173 I have taken notice of a new invented Method of transplanting Trees with Safety, by means of a Vegetable Mummy.
1928 W. Johnson Gilbert White viii. 169 The substance known strictly as ‘vegetable mummy’ was composed of beeswax, rosin, and pitch.
1970 M. J. Petry Hegel’s Philos. Nature III. 268 He made a great deal of money by advertising his skill in grafting and propagating plants from buds and roots, and claimed to have discovered a vegetable mummy (consisting largely of copal and turpentine).
vegetable oil n. oil obtained or manufactured from plants.
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the world > food and drink > food > fat or oil > [noun] > vegetable oil or margarine
palm oil1625
vegetable oil1651
butter of mace1694
Negro-oil1753
sunflower oil1768
Galam butter1782
vegetable butter1790
vegetable fat1797
winter oil1811
butter substitute1834
red palm oil1836
butter oil1844
shea butter1847
palm butter1848
vegetable lard1859
palm-kernel oil1863
butterine1866
margarine1873
oleomargarine1873
bosch1879
oleo1884
oleo oil1884
vegetable shortening1892
Nucoline1894
almond butter1895
nut butter1896
Nutter1906
marge1919
Maggie Ann1931
sun oil1937
vanaspati1949
maggie1971
canola oil1982
1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces iii. 214 Any vegetable oyle [L. oleum vegetabile] may be exalted in vertues and odour by the help of spirit of urine, or salt Armoniack.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 192/1 Vegetable oils are obtained by expression, infusion, and distillation.
1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 741/1 The ordinary method for separating vegetable oils and fats from the nuts, seeds, &c., of which they form constituent parts is by pressure.
1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 16 Jan. 15/3 Listed in the..general cargo..is a large quantity of vegetable oil in bulk.
2008 U. McGovern Lost Crafts (2009) 174 As..the price of whale oil rose ever higher, vegetable oils such as that extracted from rapeseed became widespread.
vegetable oyster n. now chiefly historical any of several plants with edible roots considered to taste like oysters; = oyster plant n. 2.
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the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > vegetables > root vegetable > [noun] > other root vegetables
skirret1338
pease earthnut1548
skirret-root1565
rampion1573
Tragopogon1578
oca1604
tuckahoe1612
groundnut1636
sedge-root1648
breadroot1756
tannia1756
rush nut1783
wapato1796
cous1806
vegetable oyster1806
prairie turnip1811
prairie potato1828
murnong1836
Tartarian bread1836
biscuitroot1837
yam-bean1864
tiger-nut1887
wasabi1903
ramp1946
sunchoke1955
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > root vegetables > salsify
goat's beardc1400
bucks-beard1551
salsify1706
vegetable oyster1806
oyster plant1812
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > root vegetables > black salsify
scorzoner1597
viper's grass1597
scorzonera1629
black salsify1699
vegetable oyster1806
Spanish viper's grass1852
viper's plant1884
1806 B. M'Mahon Amer. Gardener's Cal. 315 Salsafy..Some have carried their fondness for it so far, as to call it a vegetable oyster.
1882 Garden 11 Nov. 425/3 Salsafy and Scorzonera. Those fond of using pet names often call one or other of these the..‘vegetable oyster’.
1906 J. S. Newman Southern Gardener's Pract. Man. ii. 66 In this garden there are now ready for use, salsify or vegetable oyster, young fall-sown beets, [etc.].
2010 A. Chesman Recipes from Root Cellar 31/1 It [sc. salsify] used to be called oyster plant or vegetable oyster, because of a slight resemblance to oysters in flavour (very slight).
vegetable parchment n. = parchment paper n. at parchment n. Compounds 2; cf. vegetable vellum n.
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society > communication > writing > writing materials > material to write on > paper > [noun] > paper imitating parchment
water-leaf1796
vegetable parchment1835
papyrine1850
parchment paper1850
1835 C. F. Partington Introd. Sci. Bot. iii. 41 The seeds are placed in a completely water-tight covering of vegetable parchment.
1900 A. R. Spofford Bk. for all Readers iii. 54 Vegetable parchment is used to bind many booklets which it is desired to dress in an elegant or dainty style.
2000 Printing World 7 Feb. 7/1 Ahlstrom Paper Group..has announced a further price increase of around 10% for..calendered paper and vegetable parchment with immediate effect.
vegetable pear n. any of several pear-shaped fruits used as vegetables; esp. †(a) the avocado (obsolete); (b) the chayote; cf. pear n. 3.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [noun] > tropical exotic fruit > of South America or West Indies > other South American or West Indian fruits
mammee1587
coco-plum1699
water-sop1716
icaco1752
cherimoya1758
West India mango1774
vegetable pear1777
cinnamon apple1796
jaboticaba1824
butternut1827
Quito orange1846
Barbados-cherry1858
mountain mango1861
Suriname cherry1895
feijoa1898
acerola1954
1777 Jamaica i. 12 If Paris judg'd the fruits, the Pine would bear O next in fame, the vegetable pear!
1836 C. Empson Narr. S. Amer. 58 It might..drive to desperation a confirmed epicure, to hear details of the best method of preparing parrots for the spit, and condiments for the vegetable pear.
1887 Standard 16 Sept. 5/2 The chocho of Jamaica, the christophine of the French Antilles, the chuchu of Brazil..chayota, or vegetable pear of Madeira..is one of the most peculiar fruits of tropical America.
1969 Independent Press-Tel. (Long Beach, Calif.) 15 Nov. b5/4 He has a Chayote vine in his garden which has given him the mission of proselytizer to convert potato eaters to the taste of the vegetable pear.
2007 L. Vidgen Guatemala (Lonely Planet) (ed. 3) 49 They will come to..set out food such as roasted corn, sweet potatoes, vegetable pears, and other fresh-picked fruits of the field.
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the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun] > principle of vegetable life
vegetable power1601
1601 R. Dolman tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. III. 68 The vegetable power [Fr. l'ame vegetable] common to men and plants.
1625 J. Hart Anat. Urines i. ii. 29 The state of the nourishing or vegetable power ouer the whole bodie.
1713 M. Stringer Opera Mineralia Explicata i. 8 'Tis highly probable they have a Vegetable Power.
1798 W. Tucker Predestination Let. ix. 66 Thus vegetable power, or the power of vegetation, depends on the united and efficacious agency of light, heat [etc.].
1894 J. E. Walker Voices Stars 161 The rate of ascent of the sap is regulated, on the one hand, by the upward pressure of the vegetable power, and, on the other, by the amount of the gravity of the fluid.
vegetable sheep n. †(a) = vegetable lamb n. (obsolete); (b) any of several New Zealand plants of either of the genera Raoulia and Haastia (family Asteraceae ( Compositae)), with greyish hairy leaves and a cushion-like growth habit, likened to a sheep when viewed from a distance.
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1736 tr. P. J. von Strahlenberg Histori-geogr. Descr. N. & E. Europe & Asia 410 This notion of a vegetable Sheep, (for Borametz signifies a Sheep in the Russian Tongue,) gave us all the Curiosity..to enquire strictly after it.
1823 J. L. Drummond First Steps Bot. ix. 336 The plant has been described in old books, as being a vegetable sheep growing on a stem.
c1862 J. von Haast in H. F. von Haast Life & Times Sir Julius Von Haast (1948) 188 There are similar plants on the ranges near Nelson, called by the shepherds ‘vegetable sheep’ as they often have taken them for so many sheep lying on the side of the mountains.
1892 Sydney Morning Herald 1 Dec. 8/4 A vegetable sheep (Raoulia mammilaria..), 41 in. in circumference, from the Alps, of the Nelson district of New Zealand.
2009 J. Fitter N.Z. Wildlife 140/2 Most remarkable are the vegetable sheep (Raoulia spp.), which from a distance look like white rocks but are in fact boulder-shaped members of the daisy family.
vegetable shortening n. solid vegetable fat used in cooking as an alternative to butter, lard, or other animal fats; (also) a variety of this.
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the world > food and drink > food > fat or oil > [noun] > vegetable oil or margarine
palm oil1625
vegetable oil1651
butter of mace1694
Negro-oil1753
sunflower oil1768
Galam butter1782
vegetable butter1790
vegetable fat1797
winter oil1811
butter substitute1834
red palm oil1836
butter oil1844
shea butter1847
palm butter1848
vegetable lard1859
palm-kernel oil1863
butterine1866
margarine1873
oleomargarine1873
bosch1879
oleo1884
oleo oil1884
vegetable shortening1892
Nucoline1894
almond butter1895
nut butter1896
Nutter1906
marge1919
Maggie Ann1931
sun oil1937
vanaspati1949
maggie1971
canola oil1982
1892 N.Y. Times 28 Sept. 2/7 (advt.) That's why cooking experts indorse the use of Cottolene the vegetable shortening.
1965 Boys' Life May 45/1 For fish fry, heat enough vegetable shortening in a deep pan to submerge fish completely.
1998 N. Lawson How to Eat (1999) 33 As the dough starts to come together, add the fat—which can be lard, vegetable shortening or oil—and keep squishing with your hands.
2011 R. McDaniel Irresistible Hist. Southern Food i. 31 Food companies, eager to capitalize on the idea of food substitutes, started marketing campaigns touting the virtues of vegetable shortenings as a substitute for butter and lard.
vegetable silk n. [compare post-classical Latin sericum vegetabile (1644 or earlier)] artificial silk of plant origin; esp. a material produced from the long, downy seed-hairs of any of numerous plants (chiefly those belonging to the family Apocynaceae), used for stuffing cushions, pillows, etc., or as a component of cloth; cf. silk-cotton n. 1.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > other textiles obtained from plants > [noun]
flax1553
vegetable silka1660
pulu1833
ramie1851
moc-main1857
China-grass1858
tree-wool1870
istle1883
arghan1922
a1660 T. Powell Humane Industry (1661) 88 There is no Sericum vegetabile, no vegetable silk, as some have supposed; there is no such delicate wool as to make silk of, growing upon the leaves or barks of trees.
1760 Premiums (Soc. Encouragem. Arts, Manuf., & Commerce) 51 It is well known by experiment, that a very useful species of thread or vegetable silk, commonly called silk grass, is produced from an American plant.
1809 Portfolio Aug. 120 This vegetable silk may now be used, without any farther preparation, instead of feathers and horse hair, for beads, cushions, coverlets to beds, bolsters and mattresses.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. Vegetable Silk, a cotton-like material obtained from the seed-pods of Chorisia speciosa.
1907 A. L. Winton tr. T. F. Hanausek Microsc. Techn. Prod. ii. 70 The seed hairs of plants belonging to the orders Apocynaceæ and Asclepiadaceæ, characterized by their fine silky luster..are known as vegetable silk.
1985 H. M. Burkill Useful Plants W. Trop. Afr. (ed. 2) I. 222 The ripe fruit contains a floss or ‘vegetable silk’ known as madar floss or akund, an Indian commercial term.
vegetable spaghetti n. a variety of edible squash with flesh which, when cooked, separates into strands with an appearance and texture similar to that of spaghetti; (also) the plant that produces this vegetable.
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the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > vegetables > fruits as vegetables > [noun] > vegetable marrow
vegetable marrow1822
marrow1855
succade gourd1866
zucchini1929
courgette1931
vegetable spaghetti1973
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > fruits as vegetables > vegetable marrow
vegetable marrow1822
succade gourd1866
vegetable spaghetti1973
1932 New Castle News (Pennsylvania) 18 Aug. 1/1 On the counter..there reposes a large vegetable that looks like a squash, but it is a vegetable spaghetti.
1973 Times 2 Nov. 22/8 If vegetable spaghetti is as tasteless as marrow, which I believe it is, no self-respecting British housewife would buy it at any price.
1991 Toronto Star (Nexis) 21 Apr. e1 This vegetable spaghetti matures three to five fruits per plant in 100 days.
2008 B. Damrosch Garden Primer (rev. ed.) 368 I also love ‘Vegetable Spaghetti’, whose flesh separates into spaghetti-like strands when scooped out of the skin with a fork.
vegetable sponge n. (a) plants or plant material acting to retain moisture (now rare); (b) the spongy dried fruit of the dishcloth gourd (genus Luffa); = loofah n.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > plants used to scrub or scour > [noun] > loofah plant or fruit
vegetable sponge1837
dish-rag1839
sponge gourd1861
towel-gourd1872
hechima1883
loofah-tree1887
dishcloth gourd1900
wash-gourd-
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > washing > washing oneself or body > [noun] > bathing > cloth, sponge, etc., used in bathing
bath-cloth1618
vegetable sponge1837
loof1865
wool-sponge1879
loofah1887
bath-sponge1889
bath-brush1895
1837 Trans. Royal Irish Acad. 17 Science 232 Great masses, therefore of this vegetable sponge, retentive of moisture, and liable to be quickly frozen, have been removed or reclaimed.
1859 Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1858 18 570 Vegetable sponge, thus called because the vegetable tissue of the capsule of this gourd may be used for the purposes indicated by the name.
1908 T. C. Hopkins Elements Physical Geogr. xi. 425 The destruction of the vegetable sponge causes most of the rainfall to run over the rock surface.
2006 B. Gibson Gourds i. 10 The loofah ‘vegetable sponge’ has great value as a bath product and scrubbing sponge.
vegetable stone n. [after post-classical Latin lapis vegetabilis (from 13th cent. in British sources); compare also Old French pierre vegetable (13th cent.)] now historical a variety of the philosophers' stone.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > [noun] > a medicine or medicament > non-remedial medicine > elixirs of life
stone1390
philosophers' stonea1393
vegetativec1450
ferment1471
egg of philosophersc1484
vegetable stonea1500
vegetant stone1576
philosophical stone1581
elixir1605
philosophers' work1612
philosophic stone1647
water stone of the wise men1649
elixir of youth1725
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > enchantment or casting spells > [noun] > occult medicine > elixirs of life
stone1390
philosophers' stonea1393
vegetativec1450
ferment1471
egg of philosophersc1484
vegetable stonea1500
vegetant stone1576
philosophical stone1581
amphicome1601
erotylos1601
elixir1605
philosophers' work1612
philosophic stone1647
elixir of youth1725
a1500 (a1450) tr. Secreta Secret. (Ashm. 396) (1977) 65 (MED) Take the stone animal, vegetable, and mynerall.
1576 G. Baker tr. C. Gesner Newe Jewell of Health f. 112v This water is the vegetable stone,..of such a vertue, that one scruple..taken by the mouth, of any sicke person or euyl complexioned, for the space of fortye dayes, shall be delyuered and quyted of any greeuous and harde sicknesse.
1692 W. Salmon Medicina Practica lxix. 674/1 The Vegetable Stone is gotten by Virtue of the Fire of Nature.
1723 tr. A.-T. Limojon de Saint-Didier Hermetical Triumph 72 When this very same Matter has been animated,..it becomes the vegetable Stone.
1844 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Pract. Med. 41 322 He [sc. Elias Ashmole] laid down four varieties of the stone in question—to wit, the mineral stone—the vegetable stone—the magical stone—and the angelical stone.
1972 W. Shumaker Occult Sci. 193 The vegetable stone was very likely responsible for ‘the Wallnut-Tree which anciently grew in Glastonbury church-yard’.
2009 P. Carr-Gomm & R. Heygate Bk. Eng. Magic vi. 232 Regarding the Philosopher's Stone.., he mentions that alchemists have described a vegetable stone—and even an angelic stone too.
vegetable sulphur n. now rare (a) an alchemical form of sulphur; (also) sulphur of vegetable origin; (now historical); (b) = vegetable brimstone n.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > other vegetable materials > [noun] > lycopodium
witch meal1792
lycopodium1836
vegetable brimstone1838
lycopode1866
vegetable sulphur1887
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke ii. iv. sig. D3 They sought & indeuored to dissolue and breake his hard bonds, and by the benefit of vegetable Sulphur, and by the artificious working of the Balsam of life, to bring it to a perfect adequation.
1674 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 9 152 Niter, an undoubted Acid with a small proportion of Mineral or Vegetable Sulphur, is converted into a genuine fiery Alcali.
1735 T. Dallowe tr. H. Boerhaave Elements Chem. II. iii. clxxvii. 320 A true Metal, and that a very heavy one too, may, by the assistance of Fire, be dissolved by a vegetable Sulphur.
1770 C. Milne Bot. Dict. at Musci From the male flower of some of the mosses..is dispersed a prodigious quantity of yellow, sulphureous and inflammable dust, which..is known, like that of the pines, by the name of vegetable sulphur.
1887 Med. Bull. Oct. 290/2 The yellow sporules constituting the powder or pollen of the lycopodium, and known in Europe as vegetable sulphur, is an excellent application to a gangrenous wound.
1921 W. F. Ganong Textbk. Bot. for Colleges 505 These spores are very light and happen to be also very inflammable, on which account they have been used somewhat in fireworks, under the name ‘vegetable sulphur’.
1958 M. B. Hall Robert Boyle & 17th-cent. Chem. 87 A vegetable sulphur was possible to conceive only because the ash of vegetables gave an alkali which was commonly considered ‘sulphureous’.
vegetable tallow n. any of various tallow-like substances obtained from plants; esp. that obtained from the Chinese tallow tree, Triadica sebifera (formerly of the genus Stillingia).
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > greasy or fatty material > [noun] > derived from plants
vegetable tallow1750
palmin1833
1750 Wonders Nature & Art III. 114 The Chinese make candles of them, which would doubtless be as good as ours in Europe, if they knew how to purify their vegetable tallow.
1847 Times 29 Dec. 3/3 A parcel of an article called vegetable tallow has recently been imported into the port of Liverpool by a vessel arrived from Shanghae, China.
1901 Success with Flowers Jan. 87/2 The idea of vegetable tallow was comparatively new in this country when specimens of the vegetable tallow tree were brought from China..and planted in South Carolina.
2000 Amer. Midland Naturalist 144 203 The seeds are surrounded by a white aril of vegetable tallow which is high in protein, fatty acids and several classes of lipids.
vegetable vellum n. now historical artificial vellum manufactured from plant material; cf. vegetable parchment n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > writing materials > material to write on > paper > [noun] > paper imitating vellum
vegetable vellum1881
vellum paper1888
Normandy vellum1935
1881 Bickers & Son's List Illustr., Standard & Pop. Bks. 7 Elegantly bound..in half vellum, with vegetable vellum sides and gilt top.
1920 Times 1 Oct. 6/1 (advt.) Sulphured papers or vegetable vellum.
1995 M. Winship Amer. Literary Publishing Mid-Nineteenth Cent. iv. 98 This [sc. ‘parchment paper’] was an imitation vegetable vellum, not a true vellum of animal skin, chosen presumably for its durability rather than its bibliophilic appeal.
vegetable wax n. wax or a waxy substance obtained from plants.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > waxy materials > [noun] > derived from plants
vegetable wax1721
wax1799
tree-wax1857
plant wax1924
1721 R. Bradley in tr. G. A. Agricola Philos. Treat. Husbandry Pref. Leaves, which he prepares..with Vegetable Wax, or Mummy.
1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 180/1 Myrica quercifolia, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, is another species which yields a vegetable wax.
1921 F. R. Eldridge Trading with Asia v. 78 Vegetable wax is a product of the tallow, or rhus, tree.
2006 M. Pollan Omnivore's Dilemma i. 19 You'll nevertheless find plenty of corn: in the vegetable wax that gives the cucumbers their sheen.
vegetable wool n. now rare any of various wool-like substances, fibres, or textiles obtained from plants.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > thread or yarn > [noun] > made from other materials
vegetable wool1752
pine-wool1854
nettle yarn1879
1752 M. Browne Ess. on Universe (new ed.) i, in Wks. & Rest of Creation 13 The lamb-resembling plant, with fleeces full, Affords a mimic, vegetable wool.
1884 Chambers's Jrnl. 8 Mar. 146/2 The prepared fibre of this plant [sc. Neilgherry nettle] is sometimes called Vegetable wool.
1914 Moderator-Topics 9 Apr. 613/2 The native Peruvian cotton is sometimes called vegetable wool. It has a long fiber, and is very like wool in its texture.
1955 Sci. News Lett. 24 Sept. 198/3 (caption) Not only is the vegetable wool known as kapok obtained from this tree, but its bark is used in twine manufacture.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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