cashew

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: cash=ew

CIDE DICTIONARY

cashew, n. [F. acajou, for cajou, prob. from Malay kāyu tree; cf. Pg. acaju, cf. Acajou.].

•  A tree (Anacardium occidentale) of the same family which the sumac. It is native in tropical America, but is now naturalized in all tropical countries. Its fruit, a kidney-shaped nut, grows at the extremity of an edible, pear-shaped hypocarp, about three inches long.  [1913 Webster]
•  the cashew nut.  [PJC]

Cashew nut, the large, kidney-shaped fruit of the cashew, which is edible after the caustic oil has been expelled from the shell by roasting the nut.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cashew, n.
1 a bushy evergreen tree, Anacardium occidentale, native to Central and S. America, bearing kidney-shaped nuts attached to fleshy fruits.
2 (in full cashew nut) the edible nut of this tree.

Idiom

cashew apple the edible fleshy fruit of this tree.

Etymology

Port. f. Tupi (a)caju