Origin: 1400-1500 French carotte, from Late Latin, from Greek karoton
1 a plant with a long thick orange pointed root that you eat as a vegetable: raw carrots carrot soup2something that is promised to someone in order to try and persuade him or her to work harder: One of the carrots that Dad always dangled in front of me (=promised me) was that he was going to send me to college.3a carrot-and-stick approach a way of making someone do something that combines a promise of something good if he or she does it, and a threat of something bad if it is not done: a carrot-and-stick approach to punish and prevent corporate crime [Origin: 1400–1500 French carotte, from Late Latin, from Greek karoton]