A coconut is a very large nut with a hairy shell, which has white flesh and milky juice inside it.
...the smell of roasted meats mingled with spices, coconut oil and ripe tropicalfruits.
2. uncountable noun
Coconut is the white flesh of a coconut.
...desiccated coconut.
coconut in British English
or cocoanut (ˈkəʊkəˌnʌt)
noun
1.
the fruit of the coconut palm, consisting of a thick fibrous oval husk inside which is a thin hard shell enclosing edible white meat. The hollow centre is filled with a milky fluid (coconut milk)
2.
a.
the meat of the coconut, often shredded and used in cakes, curries, etc
b.
(as modifier)
coconut cake
3. offensive, slang
a black or Asian person who conforms to white culture at the expense of his or her ancestral culture, the idea being that, like a coconut, he or she is dark on the outside and white on the inside
Word origin
C18: see coco
coconut in American English
(ˈkoʊkəˌnʌt) or ˈcocoaˌnut (ˈkoʊkəˌnʌt)
noun
the fruit of the coconut palm, consisting of a thick, fibrous, brown, oval husk under which there is a thin, hard shell enclosing a layer of edible white meat: the hollow center is filled with a sweet, milky fluid called coconut milk