Word Study
vegetable
CIDE DICTIONARY
vegetable, a. [F. végétable growing, capable of growing, formerly also, as a noun, a vegetable, from L. vegetabilis enlivening, from vegetare to enliven, invigorate, quicken, vegetus enlivened, vigorous, active, vegere to quicken, arouse, to be lively, akin to vigere to be lively, to thrive, vigil watchful, awake, and probably to E. wake, v. See Vigil, Wake, v. ].
- Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc. [1913 Webster]"Blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold." [1913 Webster] - Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom. [1913 Webster]
vegetable, n.
- A plant. See Plant. [1913 Webster]
- A plant used or cultivated for food for man or domestic animals, as the cabbage, turnip, potato, bean, dandelion, etc.; also, the edible part of such a plant, as prepared for market or the table. [1913 Webster]
- A person who has permanently lost consciousness, due to damage to the brain, but remains alive; sometimes continued life requires support by machinery such as breathing tubes. Such a person is said to be in a vegetative state. [PJC]" Vegetables and fruits are sometimes loosely distinguished by the usual need of cooking the former for the use of man, while the latter may be eaten raw; but the distinction often fails, as in the case of quinces, barberries, and other fruits, and lettuce, celery, and other vegetables. Tomatoes if cooked are vegetables, if eaten raw are fruits." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
vegetable, n. & adj.
--n.
1 Bot. any of various plants, esp. a herbaceous plant used wholly or partly for food, e.g. a cabbage, potato, turnip, or bean.
2 colloq. a a person who is incapable of normal intellectual activity, esp. through brain injury etc. b a person lacking in animation or living a monotonous life.
--adj.
1 of, derived from, relating to, or comprising plants or plant life, esp. as distinct from animal life or mineral substances.
2 of or relating to vegetables as food.
3 a unresponsive to stimulus (vegetable behaviour). b uneventful, monotonous (a vegetable existence).
--n.
1 Bot. any of various plants, esp. a herbaceous plant used wholly or partly for food, e.g. a cabbage, potato, turnip, or bean.
2 colloq. a a person who is incapable of normal intellectual activity, esp. through brain injury etc. b a person lacking in animation or living a monotonous life.
--adj.
1 of, derived from, relating to, or comprising plants or plant life, esp. as distinct from animal life or mineral substances.
2 of or relating to vegetables as food.
3 a unresponsive to stimulus (vegetable behaviour). b uneventful, monotonous (a vegetable existence).
Idiom
vegetable butter a vegetable fat with the consistency of butter. vegetable ivory see IVORY. vegetable marrow see MARROW 1. vegetable oyster = SALSIFY. vegetable parchment see PARCHMENT 2. vegetable spaghetti
1 a variety of marrow with flesh resembling spaghetti.
2 its flesh. vegetable sponge = LOOFAH. vegetable tallow see TALLOW. vegetable wax an exudation of certain plants such as sumac.
1 a variety of marrow with flesh resembling spaghetti.
2 its flesh. vegetable sponge = LOOFAH. vegetable tallow see TALLOW. vegetable wax an exudation of certain plants such as sumac.
Etymology
ME f. OF vegetable or LL vegetabilis animating (as VEGETATE)
THESAURUS
vegetable
Boston lettuce, Chinese cabbage, French bean, Irish potato, Kraut, Swiss chard, amphibian, angiosperm, annual, apathetic, aquatic plant, asparagus, aubergine, bean, bean sprout, beans, beet, beet greens, beetroot, bell pepper, benumbed, biennial, blase, bored, botanic, broccoli, bulbous, butter bean, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, celery cabbage, celery root, celtuce, cereal, chard, chick-pea, chicory, collards, contemplative, corn, cosmopolite, cress, cucumber, cutting, dead, debilitated, deciduous plant, dicot, dicotyledon, do-nothing, dopey, dormant, droopy, drugged, dull, eggplant, enervated, ephemeral, evergreen, exanimate, exotic, farinaceous, flowering plant, fruitlike, fruity, fungus, gametophyte, garlic, green bean, green onion, green pea, green pepper, greens, gumbo, gymnosperm, heavy, hebetudinous, herbaceous, herbal, herbose, herbous, herby, hominy, horseradish, hydrophyte, idle, immobile, inactive, inanimate, inert, jaded, kale, kidney beans, kohlrabi, lackadaisical, laissez-aller, laissez-faire, languid, languorous, leaden, leek, legumes, leguminose, leguminous, lentil, lethargic, lettuce, lifeless, listless, love apple, lumpish, mad apple, maize, meditative, monocot, monocotyl, moribund, motionless, mushroom, navy bean, neuter, neutral, numb, onion, oyster plant, paralytic, paralyzed, parsley, parsnip, passive, pea, pepper, perennial, phlegmatic, pieplant, pimento, pinto bean, plant, plantlike, polycot, polycotyl, polycotyledon, pooped, popcorn, potato, potherbs, procrastinating, produce, pumpkin, quiescent, quietist, quietistic, radicated, radiciform, radicular, radish, red cabbage, red pepper, rhizoid, rhubarb, rootlike, sated, scallion, seed plant, seedling, shallot, sleepy, slow, sluggish, somnolent, sorrel, soy, soya, spermatophyte, spinach, sporophyte, spud, squash, stagnant, stagnating, standpat, static, stationary, stultified, succory, sugar beet, supine, swede, sweet potato, taro, tater, thallophyte, tomato, torpid, triennial, truffle, tuberous, turnip, vascular plant, vegetables, vegetal, vegetarian, vegetational, vegetative, wan, water chestnut, weary, weed, weedy, white potato, world-weary, yamROGET THESAURUS
vegetable
Life
N life, vitality, viability, animation, vital spark, vital flame, soul, spirit, respiration, wind, breath of life, breath of one's nostrils, oxygen, air, respirator, artificial respirator, heart and lung machine, iron lung, medical devices, lifeblood, Archeus, existence, vivification, vital force, vitalization, revivification, Prometheus, life to come, physiology, biology, animal ecology, nourishment, staff of life, genetics, heredity, inheritance, evolution, natural selection, reproduction (production), microbe, aerobe, anaerobe, facultative anaerobe, obligate aerobe, obligate anaerobe, halophile, methanogen, archaebacteria, microaerophile, animal, vegetable, artificial life, robot, robotics, artificial intelligence, breathing, breathing rate, heartbeat, pulse, temperature, preservation of life, healing (medicine), living, alive, in life, in the flesh, in the land of the living, on this side of the grave, above ground, breathing, quick, animated, animative, lively, all alive and kicking, tenacious of life, full of life, yeasty, vital, vitalic, vivifying, vivified viable, zoetic, Promethean, vivendi causa, atqui vivere militare est, non est vivere sed valere vita.Vegetability^
N vegetability, vegetable life, vegetation, vegetability, vegetality, rank, lush, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive.Vegetable
N vegetable, vegetable kingdom, flora, verdure, plant, tree, shrub, bush, creeper, herb, herbage, grass, annual, perennial, biennial, triennial, exotic, timber, forest, wood, woodlands, timberland, hurst, frith, holt, weald, park, chase, greenwood, brake, grove, copse, coppice, bocage, tope, clump of trees, thicket, spinet, spinney, underwood, brushwood, scrub, boscage, bosk, ceja, chaparal, motte, arboretum, bush, jungle, prairie, heath, heather, fern, bracken, furze, gorse, whin, grass, turf, pasture, pasturage, turbary, sedge, rush, weed, fungus, mushroom, toadstool, lichen, moss, conferva, mold, growth, alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan, blow, blowth, floret, petiole, pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia, foliage, branch, bough, ramage, stem, tigella, spray, leaf, flower, blossom, bine, flowering plant, timber tree, fruit tree, pulse, legume, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive, vegitous, herbaceous, herbal, botanic, sylvan, silvan, arborary, arboreous, arborescent, arborical, woody, grassy, verdant, verdurous, floral, mossy, lignous, ligneous, wooden, leguminous, vosky, cespitose, turf-like, turfy, endogenous, exogenous, green-robed senators of mighty woods, this is the forest primeval, vegetable, vegetable kingdom, flora, verdure, plant, tree, shrub, bush, creeper, herb, herbage, grass, annual, perennial, biennial, triennial, exotic, timber, forest, wood, woodlands, timberland, hurst, frith, holt, weald, park, chase, greenwood, brake, grove, copse, coppice, bocage, tope, clump of trees, thicket, spinet, spinney, underwood, brushwood, scrub, boscage, bosk, ceja, chaparal, motte, arboretum, bush, jungle, prairie, heath, heather, fern, bracken, furze, gorse, whin, grass, turf, pasture, pasturage, turbary, sedge, rush, weed, fungus, mushroom, toadstool, lichen, moss, conferva, mold, growth, alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan, blow, blowth, floret, petiole, pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia, foliage, branch, bough, ramage, stem, tigella, spray, leaf, flower, blossom, bine, flowering plant, timber tree, fruit tree, pulse, legume, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive, vegitous, herbaceous, herbal, botanic, sylvan, silvan, arborary, arboreous, arborescent, arborical, woody, grassy, verdant, verdurous, floral, mossy, lignous, ligneous, wooden, leguminous, vosky, cespitose, turf-like, turfy, endogenous, exogenous, green-robed senators of mighty woods, this is the forest primeval.Absence or want of Intellect
N absence of Intellect, want of intellect, imbecility brutality, brute force, instinct, brute instinct, stimulus-response loop, conditioned response, instinctive reaction, Pavlovian response, mimicry, aping (imitation), moron, imbecile, idiot, fool, dumb animal, vegetable, brain dead, Adj, unendowed with reason, void of reason, thoughtless, vegetative, moronic, idiotic, brainless, Adv, instinctively, like Pavlov's dog, vegetatively, unendowed with reason, void of reason, thoughtless, vegetative, moronic, idiotic, brainless, instinctively, like Pavlov's dog, vegetatively, V, mimic, ape (imitate), respond instinctively.Incogitancy
N incogitancy, vacancy, inunderstanding, fatuity thoughtlessness, vacuity, couch potato, vegetable, vacant, unintellectual, unideal, unoccupied, unthinking, inconsiderate, thoughtless, mindless, no-brain, vacuous, absent, diverted, irrational narrow-minded, unthought of, undreamt 'of, unconsidered, off one's mind, incogitable, not to be thought of, absence d'esprit, pabulum pictura pascit inani.For further exploring for "vegetable" in Webster Dictionary Online